Could Rich Froning win gold in the Olympic Decathlon if he focused on it for 5 years?

Post your name and I'll see if I can get Rich to respond.

Prove it wrote:

cali boy wrote:

Froning is an incredible athlete, and anyone who says otherwise is flat out wrong

I challenge Froning. Let's put up some money and see. I bet I can beat him right now in a footrace over any distance, in skiing downhill or xc, in tennis, in a bike race, in a real pull up contest, in a rope climb. I could train for twenty years and not win an Olympic decathlon event except the 1500, but I can beat Froning.

Sally V wrote:

The dude has PR of 22:07 in 1500. I could see him possibly getting the following:

100 - 13.1

400 - 58-ish

1500 - 6:05

110 HH - 18-ish

Long jump - 19'

High jump - 5' 8"

Pole Vault - No score

Discuss - 129

Javenlin - No clue

Shot - 48''

I'll bet the above estimates are pretty close. He would have no chance on even a local level. He's a completely different sort of athlete. He has endurance and skill with a barbell and gymnastics movements...not much else.

The so-called "fittest man on earth" has run 21:20 for 5K. I don't think he could ever break 5 minutes for 1500m.

PTF wrote:

Sally V wrote:

The dude has PR of 22:07 in 1500. I could see him possibly getting the following:

100 - 13.1

400 - 58-ish

1500 - 6:05

110 HH - 18-ish

Long jump - 19'

High jump - 5' 8"

Pole Vault - No score

Discuss - 129

Javenlin - No clue

Shot - 48''

I'll bet the above estimates are pretty close. He would have no chance on even a local level. He's a completely different sort of athlete. He has endurance and skill with a barbell and gymnastics movements...not much else.

He definitely doesn't make it through the hurdles and there's no way he's getting 5'9" 200lbs. over a 4 ft. high jump bar.

Side note: I'm 40, I've ran less than 10 times in the past 6 months, and I can beat Froning in a 1500 right now.

He'd be better off in the MMA, olympic wrestling or weight lifting. Decathlon no chance. He couldn't even compete with hepthaletes.

Side note. I'm 50, have run about ten miles a month of the last 6 months, plus daily gymwork, and I'd dust Froning in the 1500m easily and probably in the 400m too.

He's far too short and heavy for most of the events in the deca. He'd injure himself in the 110s and kill himself in the pole vault.

It would be like racing a Jeep Wrangler against Formula One race cars.

If there was an Olympic non-lifting event that he might be able to do after 5 years of intensive training, it would be gymnastics. His strength would translate to gymnastics better than anything else.

Decathlon would be a disaster. He would have to lose about 20 lbs of muscle just to be able to get a mark in some of the events. 1500 would barely be under 6:00. Hurdles would be a splinterfest. High jump and pole vault potential no-heights. It would be ugly. He is just too much of a meat puppet. No agility. Even admits that he hates running anything further than 100m.

PTF wrote:

Sally V wrote:

The dude has PR of 22:07 in 1500. I could see him possibly getting the following:

100 - 13.1

400 - 58-ish

1500 - 6:05

110 HH - 18-ish

Long jump - 19'

High jump - 5' 8"

Pole Vault - No score

Discuss - 129

Javenlin - No clue

Shot - 48''

I'll bet the above estimates are pretty close. He would have no chance on even a local level. He's a completely different sort of athlete. He has endurance and skill with a barbell and gymnastics movements...not much else.

I think people are underestimating what it takes to achieve even the marginal hs level 19' long jump and 5'-8" high jump marks above. Fronig is listed at 5'9 and 200lbs. Even if he dropped 15 lbs to 185 he would still be too short, heavy, muscle bound, and slow to hit those marks.

Fronig is not jumping anywhere near his height for high jump. Let's give Fronig benefit of doubt and call his Center of Gravity(COG) 3'-0". To clear 5"8" he has to raise his COG 2-8" (32") and then flop his body and legs over the bar. Stocky weightroom guys are almost always weak off of one foot and can't arch or even old school scissor kick for high jump. With training, I would put the over/ under for Fronig's high jump at 5'-0"

I don't care if Froning can standing long jump 8, 9,10, or 11 feet. For the same reasons I talked about for high jump, Fronig is just built all wrong for long jump and is going to do a bowling ball skip of 16 some feet or less.

I do respect Fronig. He improved his swimming drastically from 2013 to 2014 and that open water swim was pretty legit all things considered. But the decathlon in general and the jumps in particular would just embarrass Fronig.

These are good estimates. Doubt he'd long jump 19' though.

He's in great shape, but I don't see anything even remotely athletic about him.

He's a meathead with no speed and no hops.

Yeah, the only event that he could POSSIBLY have a respectable mark with 5 years of serious training, is the hammer.

Thread finished.

Jamie Adjetey-Nelson had 48 speed and could dunk a basketball with 2 hands from a standing position with no step.

I met Jamie at a meet in the Czech Republic... crazy talented, but seemed to struggle with injury. Very enjoyable to be around.

Blahhhh wrote:

Typical runner or sockpuppet wrote:

Why? Froning's olympic lift numbers are better than Eaton's. Give credit where credit is due, the guy's a beast. He doesn't have the natural speed to succeed at an elite level in the decathlon though.

Which might mean something if there was an olympic lift event in the decathlon, but there's not.

Here's some crossfitters "running" a 2-mile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ur7QGmZ6KY

Best comment from youtube page:

"As a chiropractor in Los Angeles, California, specializing in biomechanics of the body, balancing the musculoskeletal system, and integrating functional neurology training, the number of patients I've seen from the CrossFit world has more than tripled. At first, I thought “What the fück is this CrossFit thing? And why are so many people getting hurt by it?" And now I'm like "Ka-Ching! I wish more people did this shit LOL!""

From his wikedia page it says he played 2nd base in high school baseball and briefly played at a community college. If he had a strong throwing arm he would have been a pitcher or played 3rd base or shortstop. Can't see him being any good at the throwing events.

At his height he'd have to lose 30 to 40 pounds for the decathlon. With 5 yeas of training I doubt he would even be able to qualify for a high school state meet. There's probably 50,000 ex high school football/basketball/baseball/soccer athletes the same age as him who could do better than him if they trained for 5 years.

More respect for the X-Games athletes than this guy.

Also, that guy is on steroids.

Kind of a stupid thread as sport of Crossfit has virtually nothing in common with the decathlon...except that they test a variety of stuff. Let's face it...if they didn't have that "Fittest on Earth" marketing, this thread wouldn't exist.

Rich Froning should stick to making Fox TV cartoons.

Put up or shut it up wrote:

Post your name and I'll see if I can get Rich to respond.

Prove it wrote:

I challenge Froning. Let's put up some money and see. I bet I can beat him right now in a footrace over any distance, in skiing downhill or xc, in tennis, in a bike race, in a real pull up contest, in a rope climb. I could train for twenty years and not win an Olympic decathlon event except the 1500, but I can beat Froning.

Get Froning to respond and I'll post my name. Serious cash offer here.

Also forgot to list that I will beat Froning in swimming at any distance, canoeing, kayaking, etc. Froning could train for five years and still not be able to beat a junior high girl at 1500, and would lose to high school girls at every other decathlon event. Those are the facts, and I'm sorry if it makes you fanboys all butthurt. Dude is good at what he does, and is couch potato level at everything else. There are people who can run the 400 and 1500 BACKWARDS faster than Froning can forwards.

It's shocking how little of his weight training and circuit training transfers to running. 65 seconds for 400m! That is really pathetic.