Competitors can be friends, or they can be enemies.

Ryan Scott prefers the friendly approach and, after his fierce rival missed his third attempt on a jump, thereby dropping the 2009 Junior Olympic high jump championship into the Scott's hands, he immediately rushed to congratulate Gunnar Nixon with a handshake and a hug.

"Before, we were rivals," said Scott. "Now, we are buddies."

Scott and Nixon celebrate birthdays five days apart and, at 16 years old, are the two best high jumpers their age in the country. The Junior Olympic competition took place on Aug. 2 in North Carolina. In July, the two boys squared off in Detroit at the U.S. National Championships, where the above scenario was reversed with Gunnar taking the gold medal and Ryan the silver.

Nixon is from Oklahoma and Scott is a junior at Skyline High School in Salt Lake City. Before departing from Detroit, Scott promised Nixon, "We'll see ya in North Carolina."

He made good on his promise and after capturing the gold he was elated to befriend Nixon and melt the icy rivalry.

Said Scott, "He is probably the best athlete I have ever met."

According to Scott's father, Steve, an onlooking coach observed Ryan's gesture and remarked, "That's class. That's what sportsmanship is all about."

And Scott is not without precedent in keeping the peace. His mother tells this story about Scott when he was in the fourth grade: "An out-of-towner moved in," she said. "He was a bit awkward, but Ryan put his arm around this guy and befriended him."

His teacher nominated him as the most friendly fourth-grader and he eventually won the "head, hands and heart" award for the entire school.

Scott has a bit of natural athletic talent of his own. In the third grade, a friend bet him $50 he couldn't jump over a certain height. Scott promptly did so, and although he never collected his $50, he knew then he liked high jumping and had the ability to do it.

At 12 years old, he broke his hand and had to drop out of baseball. So he joined the Mercury Track Club and, in his very first year of high jumping, he placed third in the nation.

It was time to get serious, so his mother called BYU track coach Mark Robinson, who put him in touch with Maria Zanandrea, a BYU professor and three-time Olympian.

"That was the greatest gift we have ever had," Steve Scott said.

Zanandrea has tutored Ryan Scott ever since. He makes the two-hour, round-trip drive to Provo three days a week and, in addition to two hours training with her on each of those days, Ryan Scott spends two hours every day on his own lifting and doing other programs prescribed by Zanandrea.