Decathlon; Overrated or Underrated?

vaccinated wrote:

It needs a better and mOre comprehensible scoring system.

Something like that us

I have always wondered how scoring by place would work out. Not sure if that would end up easier to understand and weight the evenys more evenly.

I'd give it a 10.

The funnest part of the Dan/Dave era was when whichever of them no-heighted in the PV in the trials and didn't even go. Singlehandedly killed Reebok. I watched it this time around, and it's about as interesting as the Crossfit Games. The heptathlon is much better to watch, in my mind, for reasons not really tied to performances. If Crouser hadn't been throwing during much of it yesterday, I probably would have turned it off after the 4x100 fail.

They need to do a better job of explaining what marks each athlete needs to hit to remain competitive, in the lead, etc.

The points system is so convoluted there is no way for people at home to know what is needed, to that lets all the air out of the Head to Head Competition balloon.

I do like the decathlon. I mean we have all these events in T&F. Might as well find out who is the best at most of them. Also some of the most popular threads on LR are "What if X athlete entered Y event." The multievents are where that competition actually takes place.

*I do think the ladies need to get with the times and do the same 10 events, but that's a different thread.

SummerSlogger wrote:

I don't really follow the event because it's confusing as to how it's scored. I just check out the individual performances, but I don't really put them in context.

But, is the multievent athlete the best most complete all around athlete in the house, or are they a jack of all trades, master of none?

They are the latter.The only decathletes I have seen that are

actually world class in any individual event are Daley Thompson

and Ashton Eaton.Thompson was the lead off for British 4x100

and was running 10.2s when 10.1s were making global finals.

Eaton of course was a world class long jumper.The greatest multi

ever though was JJK.She has the #2 alltime Ljump and was a

world class hurdler.

Underrated

Not objective here. I was a 200 lb D1 jumper who admired and wanted to be a decathlete but didn't have the initiative nor the push to do it. My son is a freak of nature who was a D1 All-American in decathlon. So I think it's like the greatest thing ever.

It's not my thing, but I get the appeal to some people.

I want to see somebody mastering a craft. Not a jack of all trades, master of none. It is impressive when a person is so talented in many areas. Like the 500lb deadlift, 5:00 mile thing. It's cool and unique. But it is not on par with focusing on and doing one task better than anybody else in the world.

dgddl wrote:

Warner is very close to world top level in long jump (would have been third in the admittedly weak long jump competition) and would have been semifinalist in 100 m and 110 m hurdles. It's very hard to believe that plenty of more specialized athletes could win the decathlon easily.

And Grant Holloway's PRs are even better in just about everything.

The sport itself is not a crowd puller because no-one wants to watch sub-elite performances (plus scrub 1500's) for 2 days. The only time it captures the imagination is when you have a back story (2 future stars USA vs China?) but thats true of any event.

The decathlon really only requires 2 things. Show me a top 400 runner-type with general coordination for some specialization (most 400 runners have this) and you have a good decathlete. Just like FB q-backs and baseball players often make good golfers.

Decathlon used to be a big deal.

The last 3 Olympics, USA took Gold. But now that the US can't podium, the sport seems archaic and over-rated.

https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/jenner-wheaties.jpg

Underrated. I've been watching the live streams all the way through this time and you just can't overstate how grueling and difficult it is to get through all 10 events and do them well. If you actually watch it through, it's also has the chess game element like the field events, different athletes being stronger in different events, different styles of athletes (speed vs strength, etc). Comparing decathlon performances with open times/distances/heights is basically irrelevant. It's like saying marathoners are slower than sprinters because they aren't running as fast. The point is being able to put together the whole combination of strength, speed, endurance, and technical skill over two days. It's all extremely impressive to me and underrated as an event.

However, I expect it's not great TV because of the time investment it requires. I think it's worth the investment of time, but when lots of sports fans complain about baseball games going over 3 hours, you can't expect them to follow the ups and downs of 10 events over 2 days.

aksdlakjd wrote:

The sport itself is not a crowd puller because no-one wants to watch sub-elite performances (plus scrub 1500's) for 2 days. The only time it captures the imagination is when you have a back story (2 future stars USA vs China?) but thats true of any event.

The decathlon really only requires 2 things. Show me a top 400 runner-type with general coordination for some specialization (most 400 runners have this) and you have a good decathlete. Just like FB q-backs and baseball players often make good golfers.

ok, you train the 400 for the decathlete, i'll train the 100 meter type with some size or jumping ability.

dgddl wrote:

kirkandorules wrote:

I do find it a little difficult to call someone the world's greatest athlete if they would get smoked by a halfway decent high school kid in the 1500, though they're generally pretty impressive in the rest. I suspect plenty of more specialized athletes could win this easily if they wanted to.

Warner is very close to world top level in long jump (would have been third in the admittedly weak long jump competition) and would have been semifinalist in 100 m and 110 m hurdles. It's very hard to believe that plenty of more specialized athletes could win the decathlon easily.

Agreed.

100m: 10.12

110H: 13.27

LJ: 8m28

…are all very good

tarckstar wrote:

The heptathlon is much better to watch, in my mind, for reasons not really tied to performances.

Heptathletes are extremely beautiful human beings.

Gardiner's T-shirt wrote:

The latter, as in the could not compete internationally in any one of the events by itself but still impressive to be a jack-of-all-trades when these are the trades in question.

It is the triathletes who on occasion can still claim to be world-class in a given single discipline

Yeah other than Warner’s long jump performance that would have been a medal….Do you look at the results or do you just type what comes into your head????

The Decathlon is an ultimate test of ability to master so many varied events with specific technical demands but the sheer breadth of the event weighs heavily against the chance for its competitors to be world class in an individual discipline.

The 1500 just looks painful and ugly to watch guys built to Chuck a javelin a long way struggle round the track a full minute shy of the world record.

The Pole Vault is the biggest divide between the decathlon and heptathlon with the difficulty of the event.

Duplantis would be very high up my list of athletes who could smash the multi events if they ever went for it.

high school xc coach wrote:

It's not my thing, but I get the appeal to some people.

I want to see somebody mastering a craft. Not a jack of all trades, master of none. It is impressive when a person is so talented in many areas. Like the 500lb deadlift, 5:00 mile thing. It's cool and unique. But it is not on par with focusing on and doing one task better than anybody else in the world.

This perspective is well intentioned, but I think what is lost, and probably would be appreciated if you considered it, isn’t that the decathletes are “jack of all trades master of none”, they are master’s of the decathlon. It’s one event, with one medal. To train to the level they are at in 10 events is crazy and the Olympic schedule for the decathlon is insanely long. Just consider that perspective, they technically are focusing on one task, the decathlon

Ernest wrote:

Decathlon used to be a big deal.

The last 3 Olympics, USA took Gold. But now that the US can't podium, the sport seems archaic and over-rated.

Wow this is a tough post.

Up until this Olympics the US has reached the podium 8 times in 7 Olympics, 4G 2S 2B. And this year they got 4th, 6th, and 9th. Scantling just missed bronze by 38 points which is less than a second difference in the 400 meters. Imagine if this was any single distance event how dominant it would be viewed as.

[quote]Ain't 1857 wrote:The only decathletes I have seen that are

actually world class in any individual event are Daley Thompson

and Ashton Eaton./quote]

In this Olympics, Damian Warner's long jump would have won the bronze medal in the long jump competition.