Shared gold is double gold, also for pole vaulters. As in the famous moment of Tokyo 2021 when competing high jumpers Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi decided to work together to realize their dream of Olympic victory, pole vaulters Nina Kennedy and Katie Moon agreed on Wednesday night to forgo further competition after two and a half hours of competition and both become world champions. For Australia’s Kennedy, Budapest is her first international title since winning the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games; the American Moon, who acted as Katie Nageotto before her marriage to her coach, is the Tokyo 2021 Olympic champion and the Eugene 2022 world champion.
“I assumed she wanted to jump,” 32-year-old Katie Moon said of joining Nina Kennedy, who is six years her junior. “So I was ready. When the referee said to go ahead with the jump-off, I said ok, I’ll jump. She didn’t have a title yet; I didn’t want to decide for her. But inside I said to myself: I don’t want a tie.” The Australian went on the offensive. Katie Moon is “the goat of the sport”, the greatest of all time, “world champion and Olympic champion”, she judged: “I couldn’t imagine that she wanted to stop. But I looked at her and said: maybe we want to share? And I immediately saw the relief on her face.”
tears of happiness
The two athletes happily hugged each other. Moon kissed Kennedy on the cheek, who burst into tears of happiness. “I immediately thought of Barshim and Tamberi in Tokyo,” said the younger one: “The two are obviously close friends. We, on the other hand, have known each other for years, but only from the competitions.” That should change now. “I am happy to share this moment and this medal with her,” she concluded: “Now we are linked forever.”
Katie Moon made eleven jumps in a good 150 minutes of competition on Wednesday evening, Nina Kennedy twelve. Both jumped 4.85 meters in the first attempt, the height at which their last competitors Wilma Murto from Finland, the third in the competition, Tina Sutej from Slovakia and Molly Caudery from Great Britain failed. Eight jumpers cleared 4.50 meters in the first attempt, six were still in the competition at 4.75 meters – a remarkable range. For 4.95 meters, the two best needed three attempts each and apparently used up their last strength.
As Kennedy swung over the bar, eight centimeters above the Australian record she set in 2021, she threw up her arms in celebration. “I thought I had it in the bag,” she revealed. “And then Katie jumps! My legs cramped. I’ve never had such a long and intense competition.” Fueled more by adrenaline than technique, the American somehow flew to the other side without breaking the bar. And was also at the end of her strength.
Joy high: Katie Moon after she too cleared 4.90 meters : Image: Reuters
The amicable act of sticking with two world champion pole vaulters saved them a fourth 15-foot attempt that would have started the jump-off, and then decreasing heights until one fails and the other succeeds. The audience at the Budapest stadium was ecstatic and cheered with the two. “I didn’t know there was a rule that you can split the medal until Barshim and Tamberi did it,” revealed Katie Moon. And the Australian didn’t have paragraphs in mind, but the example: “The first thing I thought of was Barshim and Tamberi.”
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The two high jumpers, the Italian world champion since Tuesday, must have watched the exciting competition with mixed feelings. Not that they regretted their Tokyo agreement. But if they were faced with the question again, both say again and again, they would fight the competition to the bitter end. After all, they are athletes and competitors first and foremost.
