High Jump, Men

This event had no clear favorite. The 2011 World Champion was American Jesse Williams but he had barely made the US team. The 2008 gold medalist was Andrey Silnov of Russia, but he had struggled a bit since 2008, and was recently second to his teammate, Ivan Ukhov, at the Russian Nationals. Ukhov had the year’s best jump with 2.39, but had never won a medal at a major international. He would fix that.

Eight jumpers succeeded at 2.29, with three tied for the lead with no misses through that height: Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim, Canada’s Derek Drouin, and Britain’s Robbie Grabarz. But at the next height, 2.33, only Ukhov and American Erik Kynard went clear, both on their first attempts. Ukhov then cleared 2.36 on his first try which would bring him the gold medal. Kynard missed his first attempt and passed to 2.38 where he also missed one try. When Ukhov also cleared that height, Kynard moved up to 2.40, trying to win gold, but missed again and settled for silver. The bronze was a three-way tie among Barshim, Drouin, and Grabarz. Silnov made the final but placed only 12th, and Williams would tie for ninth.

In February 2018 it was announced the Court of Arbitration for Sport that the original gold medalist, Ivan Ukhov, had an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) and all of his results were voided from 16 July 2012 to 31 December 2015, which disqualified him from the London Olympic Games. In November 2021 the IOC announced upgrades for Kynard to gold and the three original bronze medalists to silver medals. Kynard received his gold medal at a special ceremony in Champions Park on 9 August 2024 at the Paris Olympics.