Decathlon; Overrated or Underrated?

The olympic decathlon would be a better viewing experience if it were only 8 athletes and it happened one event a day over the course of the olympics

Its properly rated. Guys like Warner and Eaton are world class in several events. I just wish they would dump the 1500 for something else. Its just a s--tshow and the result is almost always determined by then.

doingthistopost wrote:

The olympic decathlon would be a better viewing experience if it were only 8 athletes and it happened one event a day over the course of the olympics

The decathlon is perfect the way it is but perhaps doesn't transfer well to TV. It was exciting watching it live at the world champs with the European fans who seemed to know exactly how many points the athletes were getting. Dvorak, Sberle, Nool, had followers who would travel to the different areas of the stadium (if they were allowed) to watch the events carefully-I became a big fan. Again TV doesn't do the event justice.

Dr. DETROIT wrote:

Its properly rated. Guys like Warner and Eaton are world class in several events. I just wish they would dump the 1500 for something else. Its just a s--tshow and the result is almost always determined by then.

Distance running is part of T&F and the 1500 absolutely should be included.

Maybe a tad "overrated", but still totally legit. If somebody was good enough to win an individual event, you could make a strong case that they would not become a decathlete.

However, you can make the same case for every track event. You keep "climbing the ladder" until you find your niche.

T&F utility man (200-3000)m wrote:

SummerSlogger wrote:

It just seems like you could take a 400 or 800 runner and turn them into a multievent athlete.

For the guys the pole vault would seem to be the big make or break event. I could see someone being able to do everything reasonably well but that.

Not sure for the woman maybe the throws?

No. A high school 110mH & pole vault athlete can be turned into a 10 sport athlete. Not just any good 400m & 800m athlete can 110mH.

I agree with this, hurdles and pole vault both have a high barrier to entry. The rest you can get an acceptable mark even if you relatively suck at it. Discus definitely take some skill though, learning to rotate, but even if you have crap form and throw from power position you can still throw like 60' - 120'feet, which is terrible lol.

You can straight up not be able to pole vault or make it over 10 42 inch hurdles(in 3 steps too). Idk the starting height for high jump, that might be a little high to be honest and there definitely is a barrier to entry there. Anyone can long jump or run a 1500, the question is how far or fast, respectively.

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.

1500 is the red headed step child event.

8-9 of the events are speed and power based, only one endurance.

They only have so much training time and volume they can handle each week. It's too costly to put a lot of egs in that basket. Same way you won't see any of them adding 50 lbs of mass to compete with specialized throwers.

So they're are probably weakest in 1500 and throws because there isn't as much training overlap with the others, and like I said, they can only train so many things seriously.

They can't put in 100+ mile weeks, lift like a Olympic weightlifter, and sprint and jump train like a sprints/jumps guy. All while being a top notch pole vaulter.

Nope... wrote:

1500 is the red headed step child event.

8-9 of the events are speed and power based, only one endurance.

They only have so much training time and volume they can handle each week. It's too costly to put a lot of egs in that basket. Same way you won't see any of them adding 50 lbs of mass to compete with specialized throwers.

So they're are probably weakest in 1500 and throws because there isn't as much training overlap with the others, and like I said, they can only train so many things seriously.

They can't put in 100+ mile weeks, lift like a Olympic weightlifter, and sprint and jump train like a sprints/jumps guy. All while being a top notch pole vaulter.

Not debating any of that, just think that its funny that you get to be called "world's greatest athlete" by running hobbyjogger times, plus it's not really accurate because better athletes do exist. That's great for Damian Warner if he's near world class in a couple events. That's impressive. But guess what? Grant Holloway is better at those very same events, and has other PRs better than Warner in events he doesn't even train for. Karsten Warholm and Mondo Duplantis put up numbers in their non-primary events in high school that would be competitive in the Olympic decathlon. So yeah, I think there are plenty of guys who could win it if they wanted to.

Nobody wants to see a fat boy try to jump or run laps, and there's not a pole they could use to vault and would never make it over hurdles..

And nobody wants to see a skinny unathletic lad try to jump, hurdle, vault, or throw because they can't do any of it due to a lack of strength, coordination, and overall lack of true athleticism.

I believe I heard some announcers say Warholm was the world junior octathlon champion, I think in 2013. It wouldn't surprise me if he medaled at or even won an olympic decathlon if he entered. My main question would be how well does he pole vault, I guess I could look it up...How well does Duplantis hurdle and throw or run?

Decathlon is an underrated jack of all trades event.

A lot of the athletes aren't built like your typical runners, with far more upper body build because obviously they've got to pole vault and throw too. It adds a novel dimension to the running events, especially the 1500 which isn't a particularly arduous event but virtually none of them are built for.

It doesn't get a lot of attention because there's not a lot of decathlons in general, so it's hard to really build any sort of name guys the general public can get to know and get behind. They did really try with Dan and Dave before Barcelona until that blew up in Nike's face.

You get to be called the world's greatest athlete by winning the grueling decathlon - not by pulling a choke job in the last meters of your only event + loads of wikipedia pbs.

Not debating any of that, just think that its funny that you get to be called "world's greatest athlete" by running hobbyjogger times

If you think running a 4:30 in 1500 is hobby jogger caliber, I've got some bad news about how age is going to treat you in a few years.

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

not really--Warner's long jump result in the decathlon would have gotten him bronze in the open event-the guy is world class level in 3 events---

Breakfast In Bed wrote:

Decathlon is an underrated jack of all trades event.

A lot of the athletes aren't built like your typical runners, with far more upper body build because obviously they've got to pole vault and throw too. It adds a novel dimension to the running events, especially the 1500 which isn't a particularly arduous event but virtually none of them are built for.

It doesn't get a lot of attention because there's not a lot of decathlons in general, so it's hard to really build any sort of name guys the general public can get to know and get behind. They did really try with Dan and Dave before Barcelona until that blew up in Nike's face.

Agree-definitely more of a niche event-not many household names unless you really follow it-a few that had mainstream popularity including Daley Thompson in the 80s, Bruce Jenner in Montreal....yeah Dan and Dave LOL--that was Reebok's screwup! funny after that their presence in track was diminished....

SummerSlogger wrote:

It just seems like you could take a 400 or 800 runner and turn them into a multievent athlete.

this might be the dumbest thing i've ever read on here and that is really, really saying something

holy crap

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?

All you need is to find the link with running scores after every event. It's a great way to follow it.

Was a fantastic competition. And definitely underrated, mind you I'm an ex-decathlete so a bit biased.

ntreich wrote:

To be fair, Warner's jump in the decathlon would have earned him the bronze medal at these Olympics...

And his 100m time of 10.12 would have put him in the middle of the semis.

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.

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

in the USA you mean...