Initially, I was of the opinion that “ah man, that sucks – a jump-off would be exciting” and “the drama! the intrigue! it would be great for the sport!” And a small part of me – the part of me that spends a lot of time yelling at the TV when the Knicks or Yankees are squandering a game that would put them above .500 on the year – felt strongly that there should only be one world champion, at a fundamental level.

I was having these knee-jerk reactions to what was by all accounts a beautiful and celebratory moment, but then the part of my brain that’s internalized way too many Mike Francesca call-ins calmed down and I tapped into the competitive athlete-in-me’s perspective: in that same position, I’d for sure have opted to share the gold, too. It’s still a global gold medal. You still get your bonus money. You still get your bye to the next World Championships (we think). You really do get it all. It’s basically the one instance in sport where it’s not a zero sum game. So why risk it?

Not everyone came around to that argument. And predictably, Moon received a ton of backlash about her decision. If you ever think there aren’t enough people out there who care about track and field, just wait until people are given an opportunity to be really mean to somebody in the sport – you’ll quickly realize there are way more out there than you realize.

Maybe I’m over-indexing on the amount of haters in this case. I hope I am. But even if I’m not, chances are at least one of you reading this is grinding your teeth at the mere thought of a dual world champion, so I’m going to do my best to sway you over to the kinder, gentler, (it turns out) saner, and correct side of this discussion.

I first suggest giving Katie Moon’s Instagram caption a read. In it, she explains what was going through her mind when she made the decision. After checking it out myself, I’m going to hazard a guess that anyone suggesting Moon and Kennedy are “cowards” hasn’t pole vaulted before. Even as a diehard track fan – and former diehard participant! – I admittedly hadn’t given much thought to the fatigue factor. But reading Katie explain it… yeah… it does make sense that if you’re totally gassed that there’s an inherent danger in launching your body over 16-feet in the air.

“YOU SHOULD BE WILLING TO BLEED FOR YOUR SPORT,” perhaps you’re shouting at your laptop, your face beet red as you awaken your family down the hall and spill coffee on your crotch. Okay. Even if that’s where you’re coming from, consider this: you will not be winning many global pole vault medals if you are catastrophically injured or dead. And in an event like this, those ultimately are the stakes if your approach on the runway is severely hampered by fatigue.

Ultimately, if you still take issue with what transpired, direct your ire at the rules in place that make a tie possible. I’m personally fine with them remaining as they are, but I encourage you to come up with constructive criticism here –namely, come up with a better solution to break the tie than a potentially dangerous jump-off! My personal favorite solution is, since athletes’ coaches now also receive medals, to have said athletes’ coaches run through a quick pole vault competition themselves.

And this brings me to another, happier conclusion: that the more you learn about the sport and all of its facets, the better you’re able to enjoy it. One of my favorite conversations I had the entire time we were out in Budapest just happened to be with Katie Moon, herself. Not just because we got to hear more from the world champ about her leadup to this meet, and what turned out to be her controversial decision to split gold, but because I got a chance to ask incredibly basic questions about the pole vault to the world’s best pole vaulter.

I’m not saying you need to read a textbook on a field event to fully enjoy it, but spending a little bit of time learning about the technical aspects of it, the training, the rules – it all elevates your potential enjoyment. I’ve always been a big distance guy. I’ve notably become a big throws guy. Now I count myself among the ranks of big pole vault guys. I hope you’ll join me.

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