Why Do Women Do a Heptathlon Instead of Decathlon?

You do realize that the decathlon is probably one of the most demanding sporting events on the planet, yes?

As is the marathon and Ironman triathlon but they could do both of those.

adsf;l;;;;;; wrote:

You do realize that the decathlon is probably one of the most demanding sporting events on the planet, yes?

No it's not

Have you done one? The decathlon will beat you down, big time.

It's demanding, but not so demanding that women couldn't do it. That's my point. If women can run marathons, they can do a decathlon.

Besides, most of the reason it's demanding has to do with the difficulty of training for so many different events. It's not too terribly difficult for a fit athlete to complete 10 events over the course of two days. Especially when the vast majority of those events are short sprints, jumps, and throws.

Then we should have the women hurdle heights changed so that they match the men, considering how all current elite women hurdles just have to step over the hurdle because they are long-legged. But I could be quite curious as to how women do at a 42-inch high hurdle height... would it mean it would have to change the women's distance to 110 instead of the current 100 (as stride length does have something to do with it).

adsf;l;;;;;; wrote:

Have you done one? The decathlon will beat you down, big time.

Yes, I have done one. It's not hard to sprint the 100, wait around 20 minutes, take a jump on the LJ pit, wait 5 minutes, take another jump, wait 5 minutes, take a 3rd jump, etc.

Wait, now your argument is going to be - but you're not a 8000-pt deca guy, it's different at the highest level. No, it's still a bunch of short bursts of effort spread over the course of an entire day separated by long breaks that are more than adequate.

Maybe if it's 100 degrees outside then spending two full days in the sun is exhausting, but in and of itself, I don't know what is grueling about a decathlon.

I think you're embellishing how easy it was for you. No matter the weather, the decathlon is very extreme.

Don't know, but it may be the same reason they play three sets in tennis and men play five sets.

I was a middle distance runner who happened to have good jumps and decent throws. So that means every dual meet I've ever had I was doing the maximum 4 events. Some days it was high jump, pole vault, 800, 4x4. Some days it was LJ, HJ, 1600, 4x4. Or once I pulled a jav, 800, 1600, 3200 that sucked horribly.

Let me tell you, tripling in distance events over the course of 2-3 hrs is much, much more difficult than spreading the 100, LJ, shot, HJ, 400 over 6-8 hours.

Hell, even doing 4 events at a dual meet is harder than 5 at a decathlon. At a dual meet you step off the track from doing the 800 and have to run over to get in your long jumps. Believe me, those are not your best long jumps.

Why Do Men Do a Decathlon Instead of Heptathlon?

Maybe just to have higher scores.

Typically the women do the heptathlon vs the decathlon because the decathlon is a mens event and the heptathlon is a womens event. Men also have the penis and women have the vagina.

Hope this helps!

Things take awhile to catch up. The women used to just do a pentathlon. The women's pole vault is a recent event, which is the main reason it's not part of their "multi" yet.

why do many track meets (penn relays) still have the women's 3k when they also have the women's steeple?

C/M Runner wrote:

Then we should have the women hurdle heights changed so that they match the men, considering how all current elite women hurdles just have to step over the hurdle because they are long-legged. But I could be quite curious as to how women do at a 42-inch high hurdle height... would it mean it would have to change the women's distance to 110 instead of the current 100 (as stride length does have something to do with it).

I thought about that. It's true that women tend to be shorter than men on average, and thus raising the hurdle height and increasing the distance between hurdles would make it more difficult. But short men have to compete with taller men in the 110 high hurdles. Asian men (who are shorter, on average, than men from many other parts of the world) have to compete with the rest of the world in the HJ and 110 hurdles. So I think women should have to compete at 42". If you're a short female, too bad. Compete in a different event if you can't handle taller hurdles.

But at least it makes a little bit of sense why women would have shorter hurdles than men. It makes no sense why female heptathletes run fewer events, and are only required to run the 200 and 800, rather than the 400 and 1500. It's an insult to women, in my opinion.

It's time to change. The Heptathlon favors strong, springy sprinters. Add in the 800 and 1500 with pole vault.....now you have a well round competition for women. You will need speed, strength, spring and endurance. May the best well round athlete win.

just another guy wrote:

Typically the women do the heptathlon vs the decathlon because the decathlon is a mens event and the heptathlon is a womens event. Men also have the penis and women have the vagina.

Hope this helps!

Yep, you need the penis for the Pole Vault.

The Dense Fog wrote:

Things take awhile to catch up. The women used to just do a pentathlon. The women's pole vault is a recent event, which is the main reason it's not part of their "multi" yet.

Yes. Things take time to catch up.

Also, tradition gets hard to change.

The women ran the 3000 while the men ran the 5000 for a while before they changed the women to the 5000 and then add ed a women's steeple.

Maybe now is a good time to change and let JJK have the record forever.

Science has shown that women are 30% weaker than men so they only get 7 events. It is all about science.