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

I’m confused, too.

Was it their decision or the officials'?

ego

I started a thread as well, and have the same question.

After the "controversial" tie (or was it great Olympic spirit), did they change the rules?

50 grand is the difference, I think

Cuz they want to win and there is nothing wrong with that.

The officials can’t make them both jump.

American insecurity and ego

Don’t you still get the 50 grand since you’re still an Olympic gold medalist?

Did McEwen just cost himself a Gold by asking for the jump off?

It looked like Kerr would have shared the Gold.

That is what it looked like too!

I'm very happy Kerr took it. SElfishness for McEwen if that is what he did.

Must be the 22 mile hilly Sunday runs that gave Hamish the stamina for the jumpoff.

Because they wanted to win, not to share.

Barshim and Tamberi are clowns

Isn't Shannon Sharpe and ochocino giving all gold medalists $25k each though? Plus the media attention of b2b high jump shares probably makes you a lot of money

He’s a competitor and he was still feeling good and saw Kerr literally dive under the bar. I don’t think there’s selfishness it’s competitiveness and self-belief.

Because neither of them are soft like the two losers who shared it last time.

Looked to me like McEwen opted for a jump off, not Kerr but, congratulations, you got your cheap shot in.

It looks like they did have a choice. The rules are here, and state:

If there’s still no clear winner, a jump off takes place to determine the winner, where jumpers get one opportunity to clear the next height mark. The crossbar is then alternately lowered and raised until only one jumper succeeds.

In 2009, though, a new rule was introduced where the jump off was made optional, which meant that athletes could share the top spot if it was mutually agreed upon.

The rule memorably came into effect at the Tokyo 2020 men’s high jump event, where Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi opted to share the gold medal.

olympics.com

High jump rules and regulations

@olympics

The sport of high jump is an event where athletes need to jump vertically without dislodging a horizontal bar placed at a height. Know rules and techniques.

Open link

There should be a long-distance high jump event. You keep jumping for an hour, and add up all your successful heights.

Some of those guys could probably clear 2m at least 100 times in one hour.