Essa Mohamed Barshim: Meet Mutaz Essa Barshim’s Father

Mutaz Essa Barshim was born on 24 June 1991 and is a Qatari track and field athlete who competes in the high jump and is the current Olympic Champion (2020).

He is also the current World Champion and second-highest jumper of all time with a personal best of 2.43.

He won gold at the 2017 World Championships in London and at the 2019 World Championships in Doha. At the Olympics, Barshim originally won the full set of medals with bronze at the London 2012 Summer Olympics, silver at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, and shared gold at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.

In 2021, his bronze in the London 2012 Summer Olympics was promoted to silver in a three-way tie for second due to the disqualification of the original gold medalist.

He was the Asian Indoor and World Junior Champion in 2010 and won the high jump gold medals at the 2011 Asian Athletics Championships and the 2011 Military World Games. He holds the Asian record in the high jump.

Mutaz jumps off his left foot, using the Fosbury Flop technique, with a pronounced backward arch over the bar, he achieves this by looking over the landing mat. One of his brothers, Muamer, is also a high jumper.

Barshim won the Olympic gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the high jump event, the first gold medal for Qatar in athletics (and second in any sport, after weightlifter Fares El-Bakh, who won gold in the 96 kg just one day before Barshim).

He is a joint gold medal winner, as he and Italian Gianmarco Tamberi cleared a height of 2.37 m in their first attempt and subsequently failed to clear 2.39 m.

Both Tamberi and Barshim agreed to share the gold medal in a rare instance in Olympic history where the athletes of different nations had agreed to share the same medal.

Barshim, in particular, was quoted for his post-match presentation, asking “Can we have two golds?” and when hearing the answer was yes, embracing Tamberi saying “History, my friend”.

Essa Mohamed Barshim: Meet Mutaz Essa Barshim’s Father

 He is one of five boys and a girl born to his father Essa Mohamed Barshim, who was a middle-distance and long-distance runner.

Barshim was born in Doha in a Sudanese family. He has five brothers and a sister. His father was also a track and field athlete, which is why almost all of the Barshim children became active in this sport, except for Meshaal Barsham who later became a football goalkeeper.