In less than three months, Mutaz Essa Barshim, one of the most successful Qatari athletes in history, will step up for the high jump at the world’s biggest sporting event. Ahead of the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, Barshim shares his story in a new film from the “Olympic Dreams” series, available exclusively on the Qatar Olympic Committee’s social media pages
More than 10,000 athletes from 206 countries will travel to Rio de Janeiro for the Olympic Games, being held in South America for the first time, while more than 4.8 billion viewers will share genuine emotion as they watch athletes push themselves to the limit and show humanity at its best, in the true spirit of the Olympics.
Among them will be Qatar’s largest-ever Olympic team, the biggest since the country’s Olympic debut in Los Angeles in 1984. Thirty-four Qatari athletes will compete in six sports: athletics, swimming, shooting, handball, equestrian and table tennis. With the Qatari delegation completing its preparations for the biggest competition they will take part in, the Qatar Olympic Committee has launched the #YallaQatar fan-support campaign on its social media pages, encouraging the whole country to get behind the Qatari team and celebrate their achievements. The “Olympic Dreams” film series will spotlight each team and each athlete, exploring the encouraging and difficult moments, motivations and dreams felt by Qatar’s team ahead of Rio 2016.
The film series opens with the inspiring journey that led Mutaz Essa Barshim to become one of the best athletes in the world. A graduate of Aspire Academy in Doha, the 25-year-old star holds the second-highest jump in history, 2.43m, just two centimetres short of the world record set by Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor 23 years ago. The 2014 World Indoor champion and London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist will compete at his second Olympics and is considered one of the favourites for the Olympic title.
“It took me a long time to improve, and I wasn’t at the level I hoped for, for a very long time. I kept going to training without seeing any improvement. I think I was stubborn and patient, and I kept coming back no matter what happened. I chose this because I wanted to do the high jump.”
Barshim owes his patience to his father, himself a successful race walker, who introduced his son to athletics by taking him to training as a child: “My father always told me, ‘Your time will come – be patient and focus on what you’re doing, and as long as you’re trying to give your best, it’s only a matter of time.’ He was right. You can’t become great quickly if you want to be great – you have to take your time. Not many people understand that well.”
It took a while for Barshim’s talent to be spotted, and he was selected from among thousands of ambitious young athletes to join the prestigious Aspire Academy at the age of 13, a factor that proved crucial to his later success. “The Academy is my second home – we were one family, and they taught us everything and gave us everything we needed, from sports education and sports psychology to training camps, medical care and coaches. I think coming to Aspire was a huge step in my career. Yes, it was an extremely valuable step.”
Qatar Athletics Federation brought in coach Stanislav Chichirba as national team coach, and he took Barshim to the next level, improving his personal best from 2.14m to 2.31m in a single year between 2009 and 2010. Despite a rocky start to their relationship, the two now share a unique bond that has become a hugely successful partnership: “My coach is completely crazy. I used to hate him, and now I love him – we have a really good relationship, like a father and son. We understand each other completely, and I can tell what he wants just by looking into his eyes. We had to become like one person to reach the top.”
That’s exactly what they achieved together – Barshim won Qatar’s fourth Olympic bronze medal at London 2012, before his outstanding 2014 season, which saw his name enter the record books and his star rise on social media with the hashtag #ThingsMutazCanJumpOver. He adds: “2014 was a great year. I went back to my coach as if to say, ‘We’ve made history,’ and it was as if he said back, ‘Yes, that’s right. It’s done. You don’t need to prove anything to anyone anymore – you’ve already done it.'”
Of course, his career has not been without setbacks – a stress fracture in his back nearly kept him out of the London 2012 Olympics. Barshim added: “I had a serious injury, I couldn’t even jog, and the Olympics were only a month away – it was really bad. I got clearance to compete just ten days before the Games began. I wasn’t sure I would even take part.” In the end, the injury meant Barshim savoured the Olympic experience to the fullest: “When I walked onto the field, I told myself, if this is the last day of my life to jump, so be it – I’m going to shine. I gave my absolute best and won a medal, and that’s why I’m so happy.”
That fighting spirit has stayed with Barshim throughout his career and helped him again at the start of this season, when a cramp at a critical stage of competition cost him the chance to defend his title at the World Indoor Championships in Portland in March: “You can get injured, and things can go wrong unexpectedly – our biggest goal isn’t to never fail, but to keep pushing to get back up every time we do fail. Whatever happens, I make sure I get back on the track again. And I will keep doing that.”
Barshim is now focused entirely on the Rio 2016 Olympics, chasing the dream he has had since childhood of winning Olympic gold. It won’t be easy, with the high jump stronger than ever and athletes capable of winning gold and breaking the world record. But armed with a true champion’s spirit, Barshim isn’t focused on the rest of the field: “I think my biggest rival in Rio is myself. It’s easy to lose focus thinking about all the different things going on around you. I don’t do that. I focus on myself and try to beat myself and improve every day. If I beat myself, I think that’s all it will take.”
Having already experienced the magic of the Olympics, Barshim explains what makes the event so special: “The Olympics is the greatest sporting event there is. It doesn’t matter what country you’re from or which sport you like, everyone cheers and everyone gets involved. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never followed sport in your life before, you have the hope of an entire nation behind you, supporting and cheering you on. That’s something amazing, and I love it.”
Barshim will begin his season on Friday 6 May at the opening Diamond League meeting at Qatar SC in Doha, where he will already face stiff competition from three Olympic champions and two world champions.
