As the Olympic Games Paris 2024 are looming up, high jump legend Mutaz Barshim from Qatar sat with The Dialogue to discuss his career and his vision on the sport he raised to an art to become Olympic and triple World Champion.
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00:00 Next on the dialogue, we meet a high jumping superstar,
00:06 inspiring the next generation of athletes to great heights.
00:10 Hi everyone, I'm Moutaz Barsham,
00:13 track and field athlete, Olympic and world high jump champion.
00:16 Moutaz Esar Barsham was born in Qatar
00:21 and honed his natural abilities working with a legendary Polish pole vaulter.
00:29 His years of hard work were rewarded with world championship and Olympic glory.
00:35 Moutaz, thanks so much for joining us on the dialogue.
00:49 You are very welcome.
00:50 Now, we're here at this amazing Aspire area, aren't we?
00:54 Can you paint a picture of your childhood for us?
00:56 And perhaps tell us when the skill of the high jump first became apparent.
01:00 My father was an athlete and my father was actually the reason why I'm an athlete today.
01:05 Growing up, my father was always on the TV,
01:08 so in the neighborhood, I was sort of popular because of my father and I felt cool.
01:12 So I wanted to be something like him.
01:15 So I started going with him to track, to the training facilities way earlier.
01:18 And I think when I was about nine years old, I started with athletics.
01:22 And later, when I was about 14, 15, I stuck into high jump.
01:26 Now, we're approaching this daunting sight, daunting for someone like me.
01:31 When you look at the technique, it looks graceful, but also very, very difficult.
01:38 What does it take for a human being to jump almost two and a half meters?
01:43 Yeah, well, the thing with high jump, it's like a puzzle.
01:47 There's so much element that goes into it.
01:49 You need to be fast, but fast enough, not too fast, not too slow.
01:53 You need to be flexible, but to a certain level.
01:55 You need to have strength. You need to have hard muscles.
01:59 But of course, you can't go to the gym and start pumping. Then you will be stiff.
02:02 So I would say it's like an art. Of course, talent can help you. It's not the main thing.
02:06 But the thing with high jump, there is no point where you feel like, "Oh, I got it. I mastered it."
02:14 Even for me, I'm still learning for every single jump.
02:17 So in every single year of my career so far, I'm learning new things. I'm learning new techniques.
02:23 I'm learning how my body can cope with different situations and adjusting.
02:27 So there's always something that can be improved.
02:30 Now, your coach, Stanley, means a lot to you, doesn't he?
02:36 I know that relationship has endured since you were 18 years of age.
02:40 Can you tell us a bit about that relationship and how it's helped you?
02:44 Of course, everyone that knows me knows that me and Stanley, our relationship is like father, like son.
02:51 At the beginning, it was terrible. I didn't like him.
02:54 I would call the federation and say, "This coach has got to go. I'm not working with him."
02:58 He'd be waiting at the trainings. I don't show up.
03:01 I would bomb his start.
03:04 But to be honest, one day before the practice, we had a basketball game.
03:11 I was just having the ball dribbling, dunking, and he arrived and I hadn't noticed.
03:17 So he watched me dunking and then he just walked right to me and said,
03:21 "Listen, I've been around this profession all my life. I've never seen any high jumper in the world can do such a jump.
03:29 If you can do the same jumps, the same vertical transfer that into high jump, I think you can jump 240 plus."
03:36 And he said that when my personal best was 214.
03:39 At that time, I don't know how to put that into perspective for you.
03:43 It was almost someone taking you from playing football in the neighborhood to you going to be the top scorer at the world championship.
03:48 So you'd be like, "Really?"
03:50 But he was not joking. He was serious about it.
03:52 So he kept talking to me every single day.
03:55 "Trust me. You're like the rough diamond. We need to shape you.
04:00 You have something very special and I know it. Trust me. Just work with me. Do whatever I want and follow up."
04:06 So he was talking to me constantly. After a week or 10 days, I decided, "You know what? I will do whatever you ask me to do."
04:15 He asked me for one training camp.
04:17 We went to that training camp and from 2 meters and 14, I jumped 225, which is a crazy huge leap.
04:24 That was a national record. I won the Asian Indoor for Seniors and I was just a junior qualified for the world.
04:30 I mean, I was the best in the world for my age, which is the junior level.
04:34 From there, I gained his trust and we became inseparable. So the rest is history.
04:43 Incredible success, obviously, but it must have been difficult times too throughout your career.
04:48 As you reflect back on the highs and the lows, what are you most proud of?
04:52 Through my career, I had a lot of highs and lows.
04:55 I've been having so many bad injuries. One of them was the worst in 2018 when I tore my ACL.
05:02 I twisted my ankles and broke both ligaments.
05:06 It was really terrible. It was like 90% that I would not be able to jump again.
05:12 That was definitely a very low point in my career, not only physically, but also mentally.
05:18 You're not really prepared until something bad like that happens.
05:22 At one moment, you are the best in the world. You're winning. You're making records.
05:26 A few seconds later, you're on a cast. They roll you up in a surgery room.
05:29 You come back and, all of a sudden, you don't know what's next.
05:34 So definitely, there are the lows, but there are also the high moments.
05:38 If you're going to ask me about one specific moment, it's really difficult.
05:42 I will highlight defending my world championship title in Doha in 2019.
05:49 Coming back from a really, really dark place, to be able to come back to the stadium and be at the top of the world
05:56 and defend your title on home soil, that's definitely one of the high moments.
06:05 You've achieved so much. Championship success, Olympic success.
06:09 It sounds like your desire to push yourself remains as strong as ever.
06:14 So what's next?
06:16 If you come to my home, you will never see a single thing of a medal
06:21 or any sort of memorial or any awards or anything of that sort.
06:28 Because I feel like it's very important for me to stay hungry for more.
06:32 While I'm still here, I'm still jumping, still relevant. I want to do as much as possible.
06:36 OK, we achieved something. We celebrated that. Put it in the bag. What's next?
06:40 So with that sort of mentality, you always feel like I'm still here, I'm still there.
06:44 And you need to have a great team around you. Thank God I have that.
06:47 And you need to stay hungry and you need to stay focused and you need to stay dedicated.
06:51 And don't forget why you started. Don't forget the cause, which is very, very difficult year after year.
06:57 The more success you get, there's so much things around it.
07:00 But for me, I consider everything a distraction.
07:02 This interview, for example, is part of the thing that we have to do.
07:07 Or not have to, like you've got to do.
07:10 You've got, of course, social responsibilities. You become such an ambassador for your country.
07:15 I mean, you have teams around you, you have sponsors, you have commitments.
07:19 And with that, it's very easy to forget the main cause and shift it.
07:23 Whether it's like fame, whether it's money, whether it's like a lot of cool things.
07:28 A lot of people make it to a certain level and they're like, you know what?
07:31 I don't want to suffer anymore. I can go up and do anything and make a good living out of that.
07:37 So, you know, they're comfortable.
07:38 And I'm always trying to put myself in a situation that I'm not being really comfortable.
07:44 Keeping yourself uncomfortable.
07:46 Exactly. Keeping myself uncomfortable to stay hungry for more.
07:49 That sounds like a great message.
07:51 One that I know has inspired millions of people around the world.
07:53 Mutaz, thanks so much for joining us.
07:55 Thank you very much. Appreciate that.
07:56 I appreciate that.
07:56 (upbeat music)