By Alex Castle
When two-time Olympic medalist Mutaz Essa Barshim cleared the high jump bar at 7 feet, 10 ½ inches at the Birmingham Diamond League meet in August 2017, his 10th career jump at or above the impressive height, he knew he needed something to preserve the memory.
He walked up and snatched the bar from its mount.
“Instantly, I just reacted,” he said. “I’m like, ‘I’m taking this one home.’ It’s the history made out there.”
That 10th jump began a collection for the reigning IAAF World Athlete of the Year that has since grown to four bars, each one representing another jump at 7-10 ½ or above, a height he hopes to clear again when he competes Saturday at the 2018 Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field.
When meet director Tom Jordan introduced Barshim at the Friday pre-meet news conference, he asked about the collection.
“I just got a text from my father saying, ‘Bring home another bar,’” Barshim said, laughing. “I’m like, ‘OK, Dad.’”
The 26-year-old from Qatar jumped a world-leading 7-10 ½ back home at the Doha Diamond League three weeks ago and is now in Eugene, where he’s had some of his career’s greatest moments.
In 2013, Barshim eclipsed the 7-10 ½ mark for the first time in his career and the first time any jumper had since the turn of the century. In 2015, he followed it up with a jump of 7-10 ¾, which still stands as both a Pre Classic and Hayward Field record.
After traveling a total of 29 hours from his home in Doha to Eugene for what will be his third Pre Classic, the 2017 world champion high jumper is excited for the opportunity to become the event’s first three-time winner.
“It’s my favorite meet,” Barshim said. “I really love it here.”
Though he hopes to collect yet another bar of 7-10 ½ on Saturday, Barshim ultimately has his eyes set two inches higher on the world record of 8-0 ½ set by Javier Sotomayor in 1993.
“Physically I’ve had it for the last four years,” Barshim said. “It’s mentally where I need to be prepared and ready for it.”
For Barshim, this preparation comes not from success, but failure. “I needed to lose more competitions,” he said. “When you get injured and you come back and struggle, you start to really understand what it takes.”
Barshim has used previous failures to fuel his current stretch, in which he hasn’t finished outside the top two since before the 2016 Rio Olympics, but he knows it’ll take much more to become the world record holder.
“Me being ready isn’t enough,” he said. “I need to have good conditions, good weather, good competition and good support.”
And if Barshim were to break the world record at the Pre-Classic this Saturday or whenever, he has a plan to preserve that memory as well: “I’d probably take the whole mat.”
