World Athletics C’ships: Gianmarco Tamberi, Italy’s basketball fan-turned-high jump genius

At Hayward Field, the Italian will be looking to come up with his best jump to win his maiden outdoor World Championships medal.

Winning the 2016 World Indoor Championships gold, his first international title, at the age of 24 helped him become serious about the high jump.  (File Photo)

Almost a year has passed since that historic high jump final in Tokyo, where Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi and his Qatari counterpart Mutaz Barshim shared the gold in an attempt to uphold one of the notions of Olympics - friendship.

With the World Athletics Championships starting on Saturday in Oregon, the joint Olympic champions will square off again. But none of them wishes to face such a situation in Tokyo.

Going into the championships as the season’s joint fourth high jumpers, both Tamberi and Mutaz are still tied at 2.30 metres.

“We say to each other that if it will happen again, we would go on. But just because we did it once not because we were not happy with what we had done,” Tamberi told Olympics.com.

Interestingly, high jumper Tamberi is a diehard basketball fan. He even wanted to become a basketball player. With his tall stature and long wingspan, he was an ideal candidate for the sport. But he had become a high jumper after being persuaded by his father Marco, a former high jumper who doubled up as Tamberi’s coach.

Tamberi will be one of the favourites at the Championships in Oregon. | Photo Credit: TEAM SPORTSTAR

Winning the 2016 World Indoor Championships gold, his first international title, at the age of 24 helped him become serious about the high jump. Since that medal, he won both the European Championship outdoor and indoor titles before attaining the Olympic gold in Tokyo.

At Hayward Field, in a highly competitive field, Tamberi will be one of the favourites, and he will be looking to come up with his best jump to win his maiden outdoor World Championships medal.