College After competing at the
2013 World Championships, Barber failed to qualify for the final. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in
Glasgow he met with success, winning bronze as a 20-year-old in the event, clearing 5.45 m on the first attempt but failing at 5.55. In March 2015 at the
NCAA Indoor Championships, Barber's 5.91 set a personal best, an NCAA
collegiate record, and a Canadian indoor record. Later that month at the 2015
Texas Relays, his 5.90 set a Canadian outdoor record (beating his own 5.71 from 2013) and set a world-leading number for the outdoor season. After the Texas event, he said, "You know, six months ago if you asked me if I'd be jumping at 5.90 consistently, I would have told you 'No way.' But it's funny how things happen, and I couldn't be more grateful to be where I am right now... Hopefully I can stay healthy and keep it up, and keep raising the bar."
Pan Am and World success The
2015 Pan American Games took place on Canadian soil in
Toronto, Ontario. Barber jumped to a 5.80 there, tying the
Pan Am record that
Lázaro Borges had set in 2011. Barber had missed his 5.40 vault very badly in the early rounds, bringing on some nerves to both himself and the home crowd. He later explained the slip-up as a result of earlier applying sunscreen with some residue remaining on his hands. Barber turned professional and signed with
Nike in August 2015, a year short of completing his college degree. Following the Pan American games in Toronto, Barber next competed in the
2015 World Championships in Athletics taking place in
Beijing, where he won the world title with a jump of 5.90 m. This was Canada's first world title in athletics since 2003, though
Derek Drouin would match Barber's gold later on in the high jump in Beijing. After the win, Barber said, "I don't think it has sunk in quite yet, and I'm looking forward to the next few days when it does. I was fortunate to be very consistent throughout the meet. That was the name of the game. I came in knowing that it was going to be a meet that came down to first attempts. I couldn't have asked for a better competition." Barber took this momentum into the
2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships. There had been a growing rivalry between himself and France's
Renaud Lavillenie since the outdoor world championships, though here in the indoor event Barber did not meet those expectations. He finished fourth while Lavillenie would go on to win the event. Barber was disappointed after, saying that "The nerves were definitely there. Anytime you get together with this group of guys and you start jumping at these heights, it's definitely a nervous event. Coming through on those third attempts definitely helped, and it taught me a lot about my jumping style, and gives me a good platform to go on outdoors."
Olympics At the
2016 Summer Olympics in
Rio de Janeiro, Barber placed tenth in wet and windy conditions. He cleared 5.50 metres before missing on all three attempts at 5.65. After the Games, Canada's Sport Dispute Resolution Centre announced that Barber had tested positive for cocaine prior to the Games, but was permitted to compete as the use was found to be inadvertent. Barber avoided a multi-year suspension, successfully attributing the low-level cocaine violation to an intimate encounter with a woman he had met on
Craigslist the night before Olympic trials. ==Personal life and death==