His gold medal in the high jump at the Paris Games was the culmination of an excruciating watch for Kiwi viewers as much as it was a physical and mental battlefor Kerr himself.
The number-one-ranked jumper and reigning indoor world champion nearly missed the final altogether after having failed his first two jumps at the height of 2.20m in the qualifier.
But it was a conversation with a fellow competitor in the warm-ups that Kerr has revealed gave him the belief in himself that he could not only make the third and final attempt at 2.20m, but win the event altogether.
“He was kind of just in my periphery the whole time and I was getting a bit pissed off because I was trying to do my warm-up jumps and every time I was trying to do a warm-up jump he was suddenly ended up in front of me, moving his run up around and mark around.
“I was kind of just getting really antsy and he was actually one of the medallists from last time, so someone I regard as a pretty amazing jumper.
“Between my second and third attempt [at 2.20m in the qualifier] one of the other boys, a German guy who’s one of my best mates through sport, he was sitting next to me and he was like ‘Hamish, you know, he’s getting in your head, he’s following you around. You’re the only person he’s following around. He’s leaving everyone else alone, but he’s scared of you.’
“I think that was actually the moment I realised I could win, because the Olympic champion was scared of me and here I was at 2.20 thinking I wasn’t good enough and yet the Olympic champion, all he was doing in the competition was trying to get me out of it.”
Kerr proceeded to clear the 2.20m height in the qualifier and then 2.24m and 2.27m to advance to the final as the second top qualifier. In the final, Kerr became the first New Zealander to leap onto an Olympic podium in the famed event, edging a jump-off with American Shelby McEwen after the pair struggled to be separated.
