After a fantastic day, a home-grown audience finally got a Qatari gold medal. Mutaz Essa Barshim took both 2.35 and 2.37 in the first try and took a brilliant gold medal after a damage-filled charge before the championship. After questions about the gold, Barshim also received questions about the situation in Qatar and the human rights violations for which the country has been accused.
- I know nothing about any human rights violations. You have to understand that as an athlete I have been like a bubble and just tried to improve my results, says Barshim in SVT's studio.
Barshim believes that the absent audience was a bigger problem for himself.
- For me as an athlete, the audience was a bigger concern. But I managed to change that, now we know what the solution to the audience problem is, that is Barshim, says the high jump in SVT's studio.