Mutaz Barshim is thrilled to have completed a rare treble, a trio of Olympic medals.
The gravity-defying Qatari star just won his first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo, following his bronze at London and silver at Rio Games.
However, the world champion high jumper is not yet satisfied. He wants to raise the bar higher.
"Before I retire I would love to be the world record holder. It will require so much dedication and focus. With my coach, we will set out a plan and I will work for it," the 30-year old said.
Cuban Xavier Sotomayor set the world record in high jump in 1993, and even he believes Barshim would be the one who might better his mark.
“Barshim is the one who has the greatest chance to go beyond my number,” Sotomayor had predicted during the AS Awards in 2019 where Barshim was adjudged AS Arab Athlete of the Year.
During an attempt to break Sotomayor’s 27-year-old record, Barshim raised the bar to 2.46m but failed to rewrite the history books. Barshim also sustained from an injury during that attempt but came back strongly after a long break to retain his world title in front of his home crowd at the IAAF World Championships in Doha in October 2019.
"Sometimes we train literally a full year to go 1cm higher, and if we do then it is a successful mission. The better you get though, the more difficult it is. Only one person in the universe has jumped higher than me, and that 1 or 2cm might require 3 or 4 years of hard work and dedication. It is doable, I don’t believe in something being impossible, before I retire I would like to do it," Barshim said.
Barshim will have plenty of opportunities to try the world record mark in the coming years.
"We'll see. For the next season or leading up to Paris, there will be a lot of events. Of course there will be the Diamond League meets. We have the Asian Games. We have World Indoors, and World Championships, all these big meets. So definitely, some many stops. I just have to sit with my coach, and decide, which one we should consider priority," Barshim said.
"My opponents are still my rivals, we push each other and want to beat each other to the top step. But deep down, if I focus on my mission, my competitors are just there for extra motivation. My real competition is the bar.
"I'm just fortunate enough to be the most decorated Olympian in Qatar. Sport gave me a lot. I want to use what I have to motivate the Next Generation," Barshim said during a welcoming ceremony in Doha on Wednesday evening.
"Normally, once I achieve a goal, or win a trophy or medal, of course I am happy at the time but then I put it back in the closet and keep moving. If you come to my house you won’t see anything from my career on my walls or around the place, you probably wouldn’t even think I lived there. I don’t want the satisfaction of seeing what I have achieved while I am still active. Maybe I will do it when I retire," Barshim said.
