Athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's high jump

Winning height2.36 mMedalists

		Hamish Kerr	New Zealand
		Shelby McEwen	United States
		Mutaz Essa Barshim	Qatar

The men's high jump at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held in Paris, France, on 7 and 10 August 2024. This was the 30th time that the event was contested at the Summer Olympics.

Athletics (track and field) rulebooks all across the world provide for the same procedure to break ties for first place in a vertical jump. They do not have a means of enforcement; you can't make the tied jumpers jump. Jump offs were held at major championships for over a hundred years until the previous Olympics when both Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi agreed to share the gold medal at Barshim's suggestion.^[1]. Since then Nina Kennedy and Katie Moon also agreed to share the gold medal in the Women's Pole Vault at the 2023 World Championships. It has been a subject of discussion. Both Barshim and Tamberi return, Tamberi as seasonal world leader. #2 Hamish Kerr has been outspoken online that he will not be sharing a gold if it comes to that. Barshim won the 2022 World Championships ahead of Woo Sang-hyeok and Andriy Protsenko. Tamberi won in 2023 over JuVaughn Harrison and Barshim.

During the qualifying round, Barshim struggled with severe cramps. His friend in gold, Tamberi, rushed over to help massage the cramping calf. Protsenko couldn't get over a bar. Harrison topped out at 2.20 and didn't advance. It was so tight, two people who cleared 2.24m but had excessive misses did not advance.^[2]

Hours before the final, Tamberi was taken to the Emergency Room, vomiting blood.^[3]. Heroically, he made it to the stadium and even managed to clear 2.27m but was not able to go higher. Six jumpers were able to get over 2.31m, Shelby McEwen and Barshim still had perfect rounds going. Kerr took three attempts to get over. At 2.34m, Stefano Sottile, Kerr and Barshim got over on their first attempts, putting Barshim in first place still with a perfect round going. McEwen jumped over the bar cleanly for a new personal best clearing it on his third attempt. Moving the bar to 2.36m, after Barshim and Sottile missed, McEwen flew over the bar on his first attempt, celebrating his second personal best of the competition in the pit. Moments later, Kerr also cleared it cleanly on his first attempt. No matter what Barshim and Sottile did at this height, McEwen and Kerr were tied with a first attempt clearance of the most recent height and two total misses in the competition. Barshim took one more attempt then passed for one remaining hero jump at the next height. Sottile took both of his remaining attempts and after missing the second was guaranteed fourth place. At 2.38m, Barshim missed his attempt leaving him with the bronze medal. McEwen and Kerr both missed all three of their attempts at what would be their personal bests. But they were still tied.

True to his online statement, Kerr wanted to keep going. There was going to be a jump off. The jumping order remained the same, McEwen jumping first and Kerr jumping last. The first step was to jump at the height they had just missed. Both missed again. So next they are to jump at the height they last made. Again both missed. So next they are to jump one height back, 2.34m. Both athletes were now on their 14th attempt of the competition. McEwen missed, then Kerr cleared. He leaped out of the pit and ran into the infield to celebrate his victory.^[4][5]

The men's high jump has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the inaugural edition in 1896.

Global records before the 2024 Summer Olympics

Record	Athlete (Nation)	Height (m)	Location	Date
World record	Javier Sotomayor (CUB)	2.45[6]	Salamanca, Spain	27 July 1993
Olympic record	Charles Austin (USA)	2.39	Atlanta, United States	28 July 1996
World leading	Gianmarco Tamberi (ITA)	2.37[7]	Rome, Italy	11 June 2024

Area records before the 2024 Summer Olympics^[8]

Area Record	Athlete (Nation)	Height (m)
Africa (records)	Jacques Freitag (RSA)	2.38
Asia (records)	Mutaz Essa Barshim (QAT)	2.43
Europe (records)	Patrik Sjöberg (SWE)	2.42
	Carlo Thränhardt (FRG)	2.42 i
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	Javier Sotomayor (CUB)	2.45 WR
Oceania (records)	Tim Forsyth (AUS)	2.36
	Brandon Starc (AUS)
	Hamish Kerr (NZL)	2.36 i
South America (records)	Gilmar Mayo (COL)	2.33

For the men's high jump event, the qualification period is between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024. 32 athletes are able to qualify for the event, with a maximum of three athletes per nation, by jumping the entry standard of 2.33 m or higher or by their World Athletics Ranking for this event.^[9]

The qualification is being held on 7 August, starting at 10:05 (UTC+2) in the morning. 32 athletes qualified for the first round by qualification time or world ranking.^[10][11] All athletes meeting the Qualification Standard 2.29 (Q) or at least the 12 best performers (q) advanced to the final.^[12]

Rank	Group	Athlete	Nation	2.15	2.20	2.24	2.27	2.29	Height	Notes
1	A	Shelby McEwen	United States	o	–	o	o	r	2.27	q
2	B	Hamish Kerr	New Zealand	o	xxo	xo	o	r	2.27	q
3	A	Mutaz Barsham	Qatar	o	o	o	xo	r	2.27	q
	A	Woo Sang-hyeok	South Korea	o	o	o	xo	r	2.27	q
5	A	Ryoichi Akamatsu	Japan	o	o	xxo	xo	r	2.27	q, SB
6	A	Stefano Sottile	Italy	o	o	o	xxx		2.24	q
	B	Gianmarco Tamberi	Italy	–	o	o	xxx		2.24	q
8	B	Romaine Beckford	Jamaica	o	xo	o	xxx		2.24	q
9	A	Brian Raats	South Africa	o	xxo	o	xxx		2.24	q
	A	Jan Štefela	Czech Republic	o	xxo	o	xxx		2.24	q
11	B	Oleh Doroshchuk	Ukraine	o	o	xo	xxx		2.24	q
12	B	Tihomir Ivanov	Bulgaria	o	xo	xo	xxx		2.24	q
13	B	Brandon Starc	Australia	xxo	xo	xo	xxx		2.24	SB
14	A	Luis Zayas	Cuba	o	o	xxo		xxx	2.24
15	A	Luis Castro	Puerto Rico	o	o	xxx			2.20
	B	Fernando Ferreira	Brazil	o	o	xxx			2.20
	B	Erick Portillo	Mexico	o	o	xxx			2.20
	A	Edgar Rivera	Mexico	o	o	xxx			2.20
19	B	Thomas Carmoy	Belgium	o	xo	xxx			2.20
	B	JuVaughn Harrison	United States	o	xo	xxx			2.20
	A	Wang Zhen	China	o	xo	xxx			2.20
22	A	Alperen Acet	Turkey	xxo	xo	xxx			2.20
23	B	Yual Reath	Australia	o	xxo				2.20
	B	Tomohiro Shinno	Japan	o	xxo	xxx			2.20
25	B	Sarvesh Kushare	India	o	xxx				2.15
	A	Vladyslav Lavskyy	Ukraine	o	xxx				2.15
27	B	Joel Baden	Australia	xo	xxx				2.15
28	A	Vernon Turner	United States	xxo	xxx				2.15
	A	Donald Thomas	Bahamas	xxx					NM
	B	Tobias Potye	Germany	xxx					NM
	B	Andriy Protsenko	Ukraine	xxx					NM

^[13]

The final was held on 10 August, starting at 19:10 (UTC+2) in the evening.^[10][11]

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Main competition							Jump-off			Height	Notes
			2.17	2.22	2.27	2.31	2.34	2.36	2.38	2.38	2.36	2.34
	Hamish Kerr	New Zealand	o	o	o	xxo	o	o	xxx	x	x	o	2.36	=AR
	Shelby McEwen	United States	o	o	o	o	xxo	o	xxx	x	x	x	2.36	PB
	Mutaz Barsham	Qatar	–	o	o	o	o	xx-	x				2.34	SB
4	Stefano Sottile	Italy	o	o	o	xo	o	xxx					2.34	PB
5	Ryoichi Akamatsu	Japan	o	o	xo	o	xxx						2.31	PB
6	Oleh Doroshchuk	Ukraine	o	o	xo	xo	xxx						2.31	PB
7	Woo Sang-hyeok	South Korea	o	o	xo	xxx							2.27
8	Tihomir Ivanov	Bulgaria	xo	o	xo	xxx							2.27	SB
9	Jan Štefela	Czech Republic	xxo	o	xxx								2.22
10	Romaine Beckford	Jamaica	o	xo	xxx								2.22
11	Gianmarco Tamberi	Italy	–	xxo	xxx								2.22
12	Brian Raats	South Africa	o	xxx									2.17

^[14]