Mutaz Barshim is hoping to create a legacy for himself in men's high jumping, as he looks to defend his title.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00I mean, of course, it was an iconic moment for the Olympic history.
00:10I think it's one of the moments that will always kind of be there.
00:14And to me, it's simple because you just want to share that with a friend that went through
00:21the same struggle that I've been through in terms of coming back from a really severe
00:25injury.
00:27But of course, the moment was huge and impacted so many people.
00:30For me, it was like a bucket list, to be honest.
00:33Because I've been jumping, like, 2011, my first professional year, and I've been competing
00:37in the biggest stages ever since then.
00:39But for me, it was one of these medals that's missing.
00:42I've won everything.
00:43Like, literally.
00:44There's nothing.
00:45If anything I'm going to do or win again is just an extra, I've won everything.
00:48With that, I had the pressure of, like, I don't want to retire without having a gold
00:52Olympic medal.
00:53That's the only thing that's missing from my shelves.
00:55Having that, it was a complete set.
00:57So it does not add any pressure, actually, in terms of me going to compete.
01:01I love that pressure.
01:02I don't want to be just, like, the Olympic champion.
01:05There's an Olympic champion every four years.
01:07There's a world champion every two years.
01:08There's always going to be a next jumper.
01:10But what's going to make the difference between one and another, I want to tell myself that
01:13when you mention high jump, you cannot mention high jump without mentioning my name.
01:16I want to be one of the greats of that sport, and that's what motivates me.
01:21There's never been any high jumper with four Olympic medals in the history of high jump.
01:26And then if you want gold, there's not any high jumper in the history of high jump that
01:30made two golds in a row.
01:32So of course, like, and that's something that really keeps me hungry because I know that
01:36being in the podium is going to make a breakthrough to the history of our sport.