Spikes03 Feb 2014


When Mutaz met Meryl

FacebookTwitterEmail

Mutaz Barshim Qatari High Jumper

Multiple award winning actress Meryl Streep was lucky enough to sit beside Olympic medal winning high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim at a sport’s dinner in Doha, Qatar. Here’s the story of the night, as told by Barshim.

“Meryl Streep is really good friends with the president of Qatar’s daughter and she was invited along to a women’s sports dinner. I ended up sitting next to Meryl and I was chatting to her and her husband [Don Gummer, a sculptor]. They both seemed to love the high jump and both knew a lot about my results – I was just surprised they knew about me!” 

"I’m a huge fan of movies and I told Meryl she should take me along to star in her next  Hollywood film. She said, yes, sure, and started thinking up a character for me. I told her I might  go to Hollywood after I’ve finished high jumping. We were joking, of course. It was a great experience spending the evening chatting and having fun with Meryl.

"What would Meryl be like at high jump? I think she would be really bad, I think she would be better suited to the javelin, she is strong and I think she can throw things, so I’ll say javelin.”

Pages related to this article
AthletesDisciplines