Sharing may not be caring after all.
After pole vaulters Nina Kennedy of Australia and Katie Moon of the U.S. elected to hold a tiebreaker instead of both taking gold in the women’s individual final on Aug. 7, Moon responded to criticism about supposed selfishness.
“Sheesh. We chose to share the gold last year, and we were called cowards, weak, etc.,” Moon wrote on Aug. 10, referencing dividing gold with Kennedy at the 2023 World Championships. “This year an athlete chooses to jump-off and they’re shamed for it as well. Let this be a note to all athletes: do whatever you feel in your heart is best for you, because you will never make everyone happy, even while bringing home medals for your country.”
The 33-year-old Moon eventually lost to Kennedy, who finished with a 4.90-meter jump ahead of Moon’s 4.85m mark.
Despite falling to Kennedy, Moon still notched silver ahead of Canada’s Alysha Newman to secure her second career medal.
Also in Paris, fellow American Shelby McEwenwas was left to defend not splitting the high-jump gold with New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr before ultimately losing.
Three years prior in Tokyo, Moon claimed gold with a 4.90m jump.
During that same Olympics, men’s high jumpers Gianmarco Tamberi (Italy) and Mutaz Essa Barshim (Qatar) tied with the same 2.37m jump — at which point they elected to simply both receive gold instead of competing any further.
A flashback to that moment spurred sportswriter Rodger Sherman to lambast Kennedy and Moon in this year’s iteration.
“Tweeting this right after Team USA’s jumper turned down the opportunity to share gold medals and has missed every jump in the tiebreaker so far,” wrote Sherman on X, receiving more than 100,000 likes.
Moon, though, sensed a different perception in the high jumping truce compared to when she and Kennedy did the same last August.
“Unfortunately many people didn’t seem to find it as awesome when Nina and I did it last year,” Moon added with a shrugging emoji.
The 5-foot-8 pole vaulter’s silver medal instead of gold ended up proving somewhat inconsequential in the national leaderboards, as the United States still tied China atop the first-place podium with 40 medals.
