Why would McEwen and Kerr not choose to share the gold?

The vertical jumps always have this inherent problem.

If you tie in the horizontal jumps or the throws, they go to your second best effort.

Running events can and have been ties.

Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh tied for third place (and 4th) in the US Trials 100m.

If they tied for 2nd and 3rd, they would both go to the Olympics. But you can’t take four in an event.

They were given the option of a coin toss or a runoff.
They didn’t do either and, I believe they made a back room deal to give Felix the spot.

Anyway, a tie is normal in the high jump.

In other words, you’re already home, you’re devastated, and you earned no medal when you did have a chance. Got it.

Barsham had 4 Olympic medals(one gold) and 5 world championship medals(3 Gold). If that’s a loser I would like to be in that club.

Yes, and I believe the question will be, Gramps, is it true that you turned down a guaranteed gold medal and nearly contributed to the dawn of the Sino-Century?

There's this thing called winning. Not everyone wants to "hold hands" to gold.