PHOTOS | High jumper Derek Drouin's path to Olympic gold

(Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty)

Derek Drouin won the gold in fine fashion.

The reigning world champion won the Olympic high jump final Tuesday night in Rio ending with a season-best height of 2.38 metres.

He had the gold medal locked up after the next highest-jumping competitors missed their jumps, but took a single run at 2.40 metres in an attempt to break the Olympic record of 2.39. It was his only miss of the evening. Afterward, with tears in his eyes, he held up the Canadian flag.

(Lucas Oleniuk/Toronto Star/Getty)

Mutaz Barshim of Qatar won silver at 2.36.

(Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty)

The arc of Drouin's season landed him squarely atop the podium.

The 26-year-old from Corunna, Ont., came to Rio in top form. At the world championships of track and field in Beijing last year, he won the competition after a thrilling jump-for-jump final against Ukraine's Bohdan Bondarenko, who employed a risky strategy in the Olympic final to pressure Drouin to raise the bar.

Drouin played it cool and Bondarenko was left in third at 2.33.

(Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Drouin tied for the bronze at the London Olympics.

Drouin tied for third with Mutaz Essa Barshim and Britain's Robert Grabarz at London 2012. Both of those jumpers were in the final with Drouin in Rio, as was Erik Kynard, who won a silver medal for his efforts in London. The American with the flashy socks settled for sixth in Rio. Grabarz (below) finished in fourth with a season best of 2.33.

(Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty)

(Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty)

2012 was Drouin's breakout year.

Before his bronze medal win in 2012 (Canada's first medal in the event since Montreal '76), Drouin was better known in the U.S. than at home.

At six foot five inches tall and 176 pounds, Drouin has the build of a jumper and went to college in Indiana to compete on the Hoosiers track and field team.

His is no underdog story, though. Drouin won five NCAA indoor and outdoor championships with Indiana coach Jeff Huntoon, who has since taken a job with Athletics Canada in Toronto.

(Kevin Light/CBC)

That's Drouin (above) at the Canadian Olympic trials in Edmonton last month, and (below) at the Victoria Track Classic in B.C. in June. He won both meets.

(Chad Hipolito/Canadian Press)

Bran Starc finished in 15th.

Game of Thrones fans had an eye on Brandon Starc, of #House Stark, or rather, Australia, who also made the high jump final. He bowed out early after failing to jump higher than 2.20 metres.

Here's Starc with Drouin in Beijing in 2015.  

(Ian Walton/Getty)

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PHOTOS | High jumper Derek Drouin's path to Olympic gold