The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word decathlon is of Greek origin (from δέκα deka [ten] and αθλος athlos [contest]). Events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged on a points system in each event, not by the position achieved.[1] The decathlon is contested mainly by male athletes, while female athletes typically compete in the heptathlon.
Traditionally, the title of "World's Greatest Athlete" has been given to the man who wins the decathlon. This began when King Gustav V of Sweden told Jim Thorpe, "You, sir, are the world's greatest athlete" after Thorpe won the decathlon at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912.[2] The current holder of the title is American Bryan Clay, the gold medal winner of the event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, who took the title from Athens Olympics Czech champion Roman Šebrle.[3]
The event developed from the ancient pentathlon. Pentathlon competitions were held at the ancient Greek Olympics. Pentathlons involved five disciplines – long jump, discus throw, javelin throw, sprint and a wrestling match.[4] Introduced in Olympia during 708 BC, the competition was extremely popular for many centuries. By the 6th century BC, pentathlons had become part of religious games. The Amateur Athletic Union held "all around events" from the 1880s and a decathlon first appeared on the Olympic athletics program at the 1904 Games.[5]
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The vast majority of international and top level men's decathlons are divided in to a two-day competition, with the track and field events held in the order below. Traditionally, all decathletes who finished the event do a round of honour together after the competition, rather than just the winner or medalling athletes.
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At major championships, the women's equivalent of the decathlon is the seven-event heptathlon; prior to 1981 it was the five-event pentathlon.[6] However, in 2001 the IAAF approved scoring tables for women's decathlon; the current world record holder is Austra Skujytė of Lithuania.[7] Women's disciplines differ from men's in the same way as for standalone events: the shot, discus and javelin weigh less, and the sprint hurdles uses lower hurdles over 100 m rather than 110 m. The points tables used are the same as for the heptathlon in the shared events. The schedule of events differs from the men's decathlon, with the field events switched between day one and day two; this is to avoid scheduling conflicts when men's and women's decathlon competitions take place simultaneously.[8]
One hour decathlon is a special type of decathlon, in which the athletes have to start the last of ten events (1500 m) within sixty minutes after the start of the first event. The world record holder is a Czech decathlete Robert Změlík, who achieved 7897 points at a meeting in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, in 1992.[9]
Event | A | B | C |
---|---|---|---|
100 m | 25.4347 | 18 | 1.81 |
Long jump | 0.14354 | 220 | 1.4 |
Shot put | 51.39 | 1.5 | 1.05 |
High jump | 0.8465 | 75 | 1.42 |
400 m | 1.53775 | 82 | 1.81 |
110 m hurdles | 5.74352 | 28.5 | 1.92 |
Discus throw | 12.91 | 4 | 1.1 |
Pole vault | 0.2797 | 100 | 1.35 |
Javelin throw | 10.14 | 7 | 1.08 |
1500 m | 0.03768 | 480 | 1.85 |
The 2001 IAAF points tables use the following formulae:[10]
A, B and C are parameters that vary by discipline, as shown in the table below, while P is the performance by the athlete, measured in seconds (running), metres (throwing), or centimetres (jumping).[10]
The decathlon tables should not be confused with the scoring tables compiled by Bojidar Spiriev, to allow comparison of the relative quality of performances by athletes in different events. On those tables, for example, a decathlon score of 9006 points equates to 1265 "comparison points", the same number as a triple jump of 18.00 m.[11]
Split evenly between the events, the following table shows the benchmark levels needed to earn 1000, 900, 800 and 700 points in each sport.
Event | 1000 pts | 900 pts | 800 pts | 700 pts | Units |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
100m | 10.395 | 10.827 | 11.278 | 11.756 | Seconds |
Long jump | 7.76 | 7.36 | 6.941 | 6.51 | Metres |
Shot put | 18.4 | 16.79 | 15.16 | 13.53 | Metres |
High jump | 2.20 | 2.10 | 1.99 | 1.88 | Metres |
400m | 46.17 | 48.19 | 50.32 | 52.58 | Seconds |
110m hurdles | 13.8 | 14.59 | 15.419 | 16.29 | Seconds |
Discus throw | 56.17 | 51.4 | 46.59 | 41.72 | Metres |
Pole vault | 5.28 | 4.96 | 4.63 | 4.29 | Metres |
Javelin throw | 77.19 | 70.67 | 64.09 | 57.45 | Metres |
1500m | 233.79 | 247.42 | 261.77 | 276.96 | Seconds |
The current world record holder for the decathlon is Roman Šebrle of the Czech Republic, with his score of 9026 points set in 2001.[12]
Record | Score | Athlete | Year | |
---|---|---|---|---|
World | 9026 | Roman Šebrle (CZE) | 2001 | |
World junior | 8397 | Torsten Voss (GDR) | 1982 | |
Continental records | ||||
Africa | 8302 | Larbi Bouraada (ALG) | 2011 | |
Asia | 8725 | Dmitriy Karpov (KAZ) | 2004 | |
Europe | 9026 | Roman Šebrle (CZE) | 2001 | |
North, Central America and Caribbean |
8891 | Dan O'Brien (USA) | 1992 | |
Oceania | 8490 | Jagan Hames (AUS) | 1998 | |
South America | 8291 | Tito Steiner (ARG) | 1983 |
The total decathlon score for all world records in the respective events would be 12,544. The total decathlon score for all the best performances achieved during decathlons is 10,485.
Event | WR–World record/ DB–Decathlon best |
Athlete | Record | Score | Difference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
100m | |||||
WR | Usain Bolt | 9.58 s | 1202 | ||
DB | Chris Huffins | 10.22 s | 1042 | −161 | |
Long jump | |||||
WR | Mike Powell | 8.95 m | 1312 | ||
DB | Erki Nool | 8.22 m | 1117 | −195 | |
Shot put | |||||
WR | Randy Barnes | 23.12 m | 1295 | ||
DB | Edy Hubacher | 19.17 m | 1048 | −247 | |
High jump | |||||
WR | Javier Sotomayor | 2.45 m | 1244 | ||
DB | Rolf Beilschmidt & Christian Schenk |
2.27 m | 1061 | −183 | |
400m | |||||
WR | Michael Johnson | 43.18 s | 1156 | ||
DB | Bill Toomey | 45.68 s | 1025 | −131 | |
110m hurdles | |||||
WR | Dayron Robles | 12.87 s | 1126 | ||
DB | Frank Busemann | 13.47 s | 1044 | −82 | |
Discus throw | |||||
WR | Jürgen Schult | 74.08 m | 1383 | ||
DB | Bryan Clay | 55.87 m | 993 | −390 | |
Pole vault | |||||
WR | Sergey Bubka | 6.14 m | 1277 | ||
DB | Tim Lobinger | 5.76 m | 1152 | −125 | |
Javelin throw | |||||
WR | Jan Železný | 98.48 m | 1331 | ||
DB | Peter Blank | 79.80 m | 1040 | −291 | |
1500m | |||||
WR | Hicham El Guerrouj | 3 m 26.00 s | 1218 | ||
DB | Robert Baker | 3 m 58.70 s | 963 | −255 | |
Total | World record | 12544 | |||
Decathlon | 10485 |
Points | Nation | Athlete | Date | Place |
---|---|---|---|---|
9026 | CZE | Roman Šebrle | 2001-04-27 | Götzis |
8891 | USA | Dan O'Brien | 1992-09-05 | Talence |
8847 | GBR | Daley Thompson | 1984-08-09 | Los Angeles |
8832 | GER | Jürgen Hingsen | 1984-06-09 | Mannheim |
8815 | EST | Erki Nool | 2001-08-07 | Edmonton |
8735 | BLR | Eduard Hämäläinen | 1994-05-29 | Götzis |
8730 | FIN | Eduard Hämäläinen | 1997-08-06 | Athens |
8725 | KAZ | Dmitriy Karpov | 2004-08-24 | Athens |
8709 | UKR | Aleksandr Apaychev | 1984-06-03 | Neubrandenburg |
8698 | RUS | Grigoriy Degtyaryev | 1984-06-22 | Kiev |
8654 | CUB | Leonel Suárez | 2009-07-04 | Havana |
8644 | JAM | Maurice Smith | 2007-09-01 | Osaka |
8626 | CAN | Mike Smith | 1996-05-26 | Götzis |
8574 | FRA | Christian Plaziat | 1990-08-29 | Split |
8573 | ISL | Jón Arnar Magnússon | 1998-05-31 | Götzis |
8566 | POL | Sebastian Chmara | 1998-05-17 | Murcia |
8554 | HUN | Attila Zsivóczky | 2000-06-04 | Götzis |
8526 | ESP | Francisco Javier Benet | 1998-05-17 | Murcia |
8490 | AUS | Jagan Hames | 1998-09-18 | Kuala Lumpur |
8447 | NED | Robert de Wit | 1988-05-22 | Eindhoven |
8445 | UZB | Ramil Ganiyev | 1997-08-06 | Athens |
8437 | LTU | Rišardas Malachovskis | 1988-07-02 | Staiki |
8406 | SWE | Nicklas Wiberg | 2009-08-20 | Berlin |
8359 | NZL | Simon Poelman | 1987-03-22 | Christchurch |
8334 | SUI | Stephan Niklaus | 1983-07-03 | Lausanne |
8320 | AUT | Gernot Kellermayr | 1993-05-30 | Götzis |
8302 | ALG | Larbi Bouraada | 2011-07-17 | Ratingen |
8291 | ARG | Tito Steiner | 1983-06-23 | Provo |
8290 | CHN | Qi Haifeng | 2005-05-29 | Götzis |
8288 | MDA | Valeri Kachanov | 1980-06-21 | Moscow |
8271 | LAT | Janis Karlivans | 2007-05-27 | Götzis |
8266 | BRA | Pedro da Silva | 1987-04-23 | Walnut |
8256 | SRB | Mihail Dudaš | 2011-08-28 | Daegu |
8213 | POR | Mário Aníbal | 2001-07-01 | Kaunas |
8206 | ROC | Yang Chuan-Kwang | 1963-04-28 | Walnut |
8200 | BEL | Hans Van Alphen | 2011-09-18 | Talence |
8199 | BUL | Atanas Andonov | 1981-06-21 | Sofia |
8169 | ITA | Beniamino Poserina | 1996-10-06 | Formia |
8160 | NOR | Benjamin Jensen | 1999-08-01 | Greve |
8146 | RSA | Willem Coertzen | 2009-08-20 | Berlin |
8073 | JPN | Keisuke Ushiro | 2011-06-05 | Kawasaki |
8069 | GRE | Prodromos Korkizoglou | 2000-07-02 | Ibach |
8023 | TUN | Hamdi Dhouibi | 2005-08-10 | Helsinki |
7994 | DEN | Lars Warming | 1988-06-19 | Götzis |
7882 | IRL | Carlos O'Connell | 1988-06-05 | Emmitsburg |
7860 | KOR | Kim Kun-Woo | 2011-08-28 | Gongju |
7846 | TJK | Igor Sobolevskiy | 1982-07-16 | Leningrad |
7843 | ROM | Vasile Bogdan | 1975-06-07 | Paris |
7802 | CYP | Yeorgios Andreou | 2000-08-12 | Volos |
7799 | SVK | Peter Soldos | 2001-06-10 | Arles |
7777 | BAR | Victor Houston | 1997-08-06 | Athens |
7757 | TUR | Alper Kasapoğlu | 1996-04-19 | Azusa |
7756 | GEO | Juri Dyachkov | 1968-06-16 | Tbilisi |
7755 | VIE | Vu Van Huyen | 2010-11-25 | Guangzhou |
7734 | VEN | Douglas Fernández | 1983-08-27 | Caracas |
7730 | QAT | Ahmad Hassan Moussa | 2004-06-27 | Ratingen |
7711 | IRI | Hadi Sepehrzad | 2008-07-21 | Tehran |
7704 | PUR | Luiggy Llanos | 2003-08-06 | Santo Domingo |
7698 | SLO | Damjan Sitar | 2006-05-28 | Maribor |
7659 | CRO | Joško Vlašić | 1983-06-25 | Izmir |
7632 | LCA | Dominic Johnson | 1998-03-27 | Tucson |
7614 | MEX | Alejandro Cárdenas | 1996-05-11 | Medellín |
7096 | ISR | Erez Meltzer | 1994-07-31 | Markt Schwaben |
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