--- title: Rio 2016 Olympics: Game of Thrones Jokes Brandon Starc description: Olympic high jumper Brandon Starc has qualified for the men's final, but it isn't just his athletic ability that has drawn fans to him. canonical: https://time.com/4452467/rio-2016-olympics-game-of-thrones-high-jumper-brandon-starc/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-15T17:09:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:35:30.024Z og:title: Game of Thrones Fans Have a Lot of Jokes About Olympic High Jumper Brandon Starc og:description: "You're the 3-eyed wombat now" og:url: https://time.com/4452467/rio-2016-olympics-game-of-thrones-high-jumper-brandon-starc/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Game of Thrones Fans Have a Lot of Jokes About Olympic High Jumper Brandon Starc twitter:description: "You're the 3-eyed wombat now" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # _Game of Thrones_ Fans Have a Lot of Jokes About Olympic High Jumper Brandon Starc  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Aug 15, 2016 5:09 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Aug 15, 2016 5:09 PM UTC Olympic high jumper Brandon Starc qualified for the [2016 Rio Summer Games](http://time.com/4451806/usain-bolt-gold-rio-2016-olympics-100-meters-gatlin-blake/) men’s final over the weekend, clearing 2.29 meters with his last attempt of Sunday’s semi-final competition. But it isn’t just the Olympian’s incredible athletic ability that has recently drawn fans to him. With basically the same name as [_Game of Thrones_‘](http://time.com/4385303/game-of-thrones-season-7-questions/) [Bran Stark](http://time.com/4385552/game-of-thrones-bran-stark-jon-snow-father/), the 22-year-old Australian has begun attracting the attention of viewers of the HBO drama, many of whom have taken to Twitter to joke about the similarity. **Some have poked fun at the irony of Starc’s chosen sport:** > [](https://twitter.com/DanWilde9/status/765008519263248384) > [](https://twitter.com/katellora/status/765003803372294144) > [](https://twitter.com/infiniterain/status/765004937147379712) **While a few have quipped about Bran’s former gentle giant bodyguard:** > [](https://twitter.com/Sam%5FVecenie/status/765005560517320705) > [](https://twitter.com/BrisbaneRover/status/765100097185062912) **Others had more general** **_Thrones_** **jokes:** > [](https://twitter.com/Short%5Fepics/status/765005614879764480) > [](https://twitter.com/L%5Fou%5Fise/status/637189469108588544) > [](https://twitter.com/federering/status/765185280101842948) > [](https://twitter.com/antsharwood/status/765004753898209280) Starc will compete in the men’s high jump final on Tuesday, Aug. 16 at 7:30 p.m. EST. \[[h/t Vanity Fair](http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/08/brandon-starc-game-of-thrones-fans)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4452467/rio-2016-olympics-game-of-thrones-high-jumper-brandon-starc/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4452467/rio-2016-olympics-game-of-thrones-high-jumper-brandon-starc/"},"headline":"Game of Thrones Fans Have a Lot of Jokes About Olympic High Jumper Brandon Starc","datePublished":"2016-08-15T17:09:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:35:30.024Z","description":"\"You're the 3-eyed wombat now\"","url":"https://time.com/4452467/rio-2016-olympics-game-of-thrones-high-jumper-brandon-starc/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","olympics","game of thrones","TV","Summer Olympics","Rio 2016","2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics","Rio 2016 Olympics"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4452467/rio-2016-olympics-game-of-thrones-high-jumper-brandon-starc/","name":"Game of Thrones Fans Have a Lot of Jokes About Olympic High Jumper Brandon Starc"}}]}] ```