By Aaron Heisen, University of Oregon SOJC Track Bureau
I had been awake since 4:57 a.m. However, as I walked home from my first day of covering the World Athletics Championships, my mind was far from exhausted.
Instead, my thoughts were racing — trying to process everything that I had observed and breathed in from the nine hours of competition and two hours of press conferences. Among all the events, I kept going back to one athlete. Qatari high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim.
Since I began covering track and field for the SOJC Track Bureau in April, I’ve been enamored by the middle-distance races. They’re long enough for the runners’ strategy to dictate the outcome of the race, while still incorporating an all-out sprint to the finish.
While I’ve learned to love track and field for its intricacies, at heart, I’m a basketball fan and nerd. I grew up going to Los Angeles Clippers games alongside my Grandpa, who had season tickets. At Staples Center, now known as Crypto.com Arena, I had the privilege of watching some of the most physically-gifted athletes perform feats that I could only dream of achieving.
As a basketball purist, if you told me that a man who stood at 6-foot-2 and weighed 143 pounds would catch my attention, I would have thought it was a joke.
I wasn’t far off. When I first watched Barshim, he glided over the bar at 7 feet, 5 ¾ inches, with ease. His swaggy personality matched his athletic prowess. In-between jumps, Barshim lay on the ground with his shades on, pondering his next jump.
Three days later, as fate would have it, I had the privilege of covering the men’s high jump final.
Barshim put on a show, cleanly clearing the bar at every height on his way to winning his third straight world championship title. The fan in me couldn’t be contained. After producing his winning jump, Barshim flapped his wings like a bird. At that moment, if he had taken flight and soared out of Hayward Field, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
As I did Friday night, I walked home on Monday thinking about Barshim’s winning jump. It was a moment that not many could compare to. So, naturally, I began to compare other sports moments I had seen to it. A few entered my mind initially.
Aaron Gordon’s 2016 dunk contest dunk, when he brought the ball under his legs as he scaled the Orlando Magic’s mascot, who was spinning on a hoverboard. Gordon basically took a seat in mid-air. I’ll always remember that I watched that sitting in the gym of my great-grandma’s retirement home, as my little brother and I tried to avoid our family.
The Los Angeles Chargers’ comeback against the Pittsburgh Steelers in November 2018. The Chargers trailed 23-7 with 1:54 remaining in the third quarter. Then, Desmond King opened up the game on one play — a 73-yard punt return touchdown. The Chargers were able to catch the Steelers and the game was locked at 30 before the Chargers attempted a game-winning field goal at the last second.
While I’ll never forget either of those sporting events, it’s a different feeling when you’re in person.
In 2021, the Los Angeles Clippers had a chance to seal their first trip to the Western Conference Finals. I was in attendance. The Clippers led the Utah Jazz 3-2 in the series, but the Jazz bolted out to a 25-point lead by halftime. The series seemed destined for a Game Seven in Utah. Then, out of nowhere, the Clippers mounted a comeback. Their second-round pick Terance Mann went 7-of-10 on 3-pointers, on his way to scoring 39 points.
He could have shot from anywhere and believed, in his soul, that it was going in.
As I left the stadium that night, I was sure I’d never seen anything like that happen.
The final moment that I want to compare to watching Barshim was sitting next to Kevin Durant when I was 10 years old. I had watched Durant on TV make some of the most incredible shots, but couldn’t understand what his impact was on fans before seeing him in person.
With my grandpa’s season tickets, he earned promotions. One of them was to sit courtside by the away team’s bench. During a timeout, Durant came over to the seat right next to me to grab a towel. He towered over me, and seeing him in person made me realize that all his skills are real.
He works so hard to be so good, and it’s not just a movie that I watch on TV.
At the World Championships, Barshim brought those thoughts back into my mind.
