Barshim chasing Olympic immortality in Paris

Mutaz Barshim is hoping to create a legacy for himself in men's high jumping, as he looks to defend his title.

Transcript

00:00I mean, of course, it was an iconic moment for the Olympic history.

00:10I think it's one of the moments that will always kind of be there.

00:14And to me, it's simple because you just want to share that with a friend that went through

00:21the same struggle that I've been through in terms of coming back from a really severe

00:25injury.

00:27But of course, the moment was huge and impacted so many people.

00:30For me, it was like a bucket list, to be honest.

00:33Because I've been jumping, like, 2011, my first professional year, and I've been competing

00:37in the biggest stages ever since then.

00:39But for me, it was one of these medals that's missing.

00:42I've won everything.

00:43Like, literally.

00:44There's nothing.

00:45If anything I'm going to do or win again is just an extra, I've won everything.

00:48With that, I had the pressure of, like, I don't want to retire without having a gold

00:52Olympic medal.

00:53That's the only thing that's missing from my shelves.

00:55Having that, it was a complete set.

00:57So it does not add any pressure, actually, in terms of me going to compete.

01:01I love that pressure.

01:02I don't want to be just, like, the Olympic champion.

01:05There's an Olympic champion every four years.

01:07There's a world champion every two years.

01:08There's always going to be a next jumper.

01:10But what's going to make the difference between one and another, I want to tell myself that

01:13when you mention high jump, you cannot mention high jump without mentioning my name.

01:16I want to be one of the greats of that sport, and that's what motivates me.

01:21There's never been any high jumper with four Olympic medals in the history of high jump.

01:26And then if you want gold, there's not any high jumper in the history of high jump that

01:30made two golds in a row.

01:32So of course, like, and that's something that really keeps me hungry because I know that

01:36being in the podium is going to make a breakthrough to the history of our sport.