Olympics rocked by 'disgusting' act as athlete's 'selfish' play for gold medal divides nation

The Olympics were marred by controversial scenes on Saturday night as the host nation's fans copped backlash for a classless move, and a high-jumper's bid to win gold dividing a country. The USA are in a fierce battle with China to win the most gold medals of the Paris Games - and with one day remaining it's China leading 39 to 38.

The US will finish with the most medals overall for the eight-straight Olympics - dating back to Atlanta in 1996. But they're in danger of finishing second to China in terms of gold, which would mark the first time the Americans haven't won the most gold since 2008 in Beijing.

So it made the decision of high-jumper Shelby McEwen to chase individual gold instead of sharing it all the more controversial. McEwen and New Zealander Hamish Kerr couldn't be separated in the men's high jump final, with both producing 2.36m as their best efforts.

When both men failed in all three attempts to go higher, officials offered them the chance to share the gold medal. The same situation occurred at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 when Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatra and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy agreed to take one gold medal each instead of continuing to jump in a sudden-death shootout.

But on Saturday night it was a different story and McEwen wanted the glory all on his own. The American revealed that Kerr also wanted to keep jumping, saying: “We talked to each other, and he was like, ‘Let’s jump off.’ And I was like, ‘I’m all for it.’”

Americans heavily divided over Shelby McEwen's decision

But McEwen's decision heavily divided opinion in America after it backfired brutally. Neither man could go higher than 2.36m and officials even had to lower the bar to 2.34m after a multitude of misses. But after 11 consecutive failures, Kerr finally went over the bar and McEwen was relegated to silver. While some commended McEwen for not wanting to share the gold, others thought it was "selfish" to put himself before his country - especially in light of how close the battle with China is.

One commentator wrote: “USA’s McEwen chose not to share the gold with NZ’s Hamish Kerr. It went to a jump-off and the Kiwi took it. Karma.” Another commented: “Shelby McEwen is selfish rather than being a team player for Team USA." While another comment read: "You’re telling me that we had a chance to go level with China for gold medals, only for Shelby McEwen to reject sharing the gold medal with Hamish Kerr and end up finishing second in the high jump?”

It was a similar situation to what played out with Nina Kennedy and Katie Moon when they shared the pole vault gold medal at the world championships last year. But in Paris it was Kennedy who took the glory all on her own, and the Aussie later admitted she wouldn't share the gold if the situation came up at the Olympics.

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Joel Embiid booed in nasty scenes after basketball gold medal game

One gold medal the Americans won on Saturday came via the 'Dream Team' men's basketballers. Steph Curry scored 24 points in a 98-87 win over France in the final, marking the fifth-consecutive gold medal for the US men, and 17th in 20 all-time appearances for the Americans at the Games.

But there were unsavoury scenes during the medal presentation when Joel Embiid was loudly booed by the French crowd. The Philadelphia 76ers star had the opportunity to play for France at the Paris Games, but instead decided to represent the USA.

And French fans clearly hadn't gotten over the slight as they rained down boos on Embiid as he received his gold medal. Embiid basked in playing the villain and lapped up the treatment, but viewers were left unimpressed by the move from the host nation's fans. Some labelled it 'disgusting' and 'shameful' to boo an athlete while receiving their gold medal.