Kipchoge vs Mayer records. Which is the greater?

What’s more impressive, a well-rounded athlete or a specialist? We certainly celebrate the latter more.

You want well-rounded? The CrossFit Games champions have a better claim to the title than a decathalete. But can you name even one?

Meanwhile, I bet there are people here who could beat Tom Brady in 7 or 8 (maybe more) decathalon events. Does that make you a better athlete than him? Maybe in some technical sense. But, in the way most folks understand it - no damn way. He is the GOAT QB, and no one gives a damn that some HS scrub can beat him in a 1500m or 100 hurdles.

You want attention, better to be great at one thing than good at many.

Broseph wrote:

What’s more impressive, a well-rounded athlete or a specialist? We certainly celebrate the latter more.

You want well-rounded? The CrossFit Games champions have a better claim to the title than a decathalete. But can you name even one?

Meanwhile, I bet there are people here who could beat Tom Brady in 7 or 8 (maybe more) decathalon events. Does that make you a better athlete than him? Maybe in some technical sense. But, in the way most folks understand it - no damn way. He is the GOAT QB, and no one gives a damn that some HS scrub can beat him in a 1500m or 100 hurdles.

You want attention, better to be great at one thing than good at many.

Lame post. Why would you even throw crossfit in there? A decathlete (or pentathlete) has been the celebrated king of athletes since 700BC. What's your problem all of a sudden trying to mar the event? People that watch sports, especially the Olympics always respected them more than any other athletes much of the time. I don't remember any athletes more as a kid than Dan & Dave. They were hugely popular. As is any decathlete.

You can wallow in your hate all you want but it's not going to make the world respect the decathlete any less.

For your information, if I run, throw, and jump better than Tom Brady, then yes, that makes me the better athlete. You don't get that? He can play some silly game better but I am a better athlete. Simple.

The World Record Holder in the Decathlon, whoever that is at the time, is a stud and no doubt about it. It takes incredible talent, drive, discipline, and training to be able to excel at 10 very different events. Mayer put up a huge number, something long thought the realm of the immortals, so that entitles him to a great deal of respect. However, there aren't a lot of people competing at the event, even trying the event, particularly because of its highly technical aspect making it an event contested only in a few largely first world countries, and many of the most likely candidates go into other sports like football, baseball, and basketball, so your pool of competitors at the marathon, which has a lot of money in it and very few obstacles to participation, is going to be far greater. High school level sports show that large high schools almost always mop the floor with small high schools simply because of the far larger talent pool to draw from.

zxcvzcxv wrote:

and basketball, so your pool of competitors at the marathon, which has a lot of money in it and very few obstacles to participation, is going to be far greater. High school level sports show that large high schools almost always mop the floor with small high schools simply because of the far larger talent pool to draw from.

This is true, but so what?

Not much follows from this. The possible and actual talent pool is only one factor, why should it decide which accomplishment is more impressive. One might as well argue that gymnastics is easy because one has to start at like 5 years old and need first world training facilities.

This doesn't change the fact that because of its rarity a new WR in LJ or HJ would be a spectacular event. Not denying that Kipchoges record is spectacular because it was such a large margin and unlikely to be improved in many years. But in the last ten to fifteen years this was not the case, we saw a new WR every few years and often dozens of runners running easily faster than even fairly recent WR times. Remember the time when below 3:00 pace was supposed to be a special threshold? 2:06 times are almost a dime a dozen now. Not so 8,70 or 2,44 jumps and neither >8900 points.

The lamest argument is that not so many people follow multi-events. Almost all "old school/die hard" track&field followers love multi-events and they were the highlights in many past Olympics or world/euro championships.

IAAF Performance Tables also agree that Kipchoge's Marathon is a stronger performance than Mayer's. The amount of athletes who do the multis is less, combined with the many less opportunities to even hold a multi event competition. There's just less marks in general by a pool of smaller athletes.

1317 points > 2:01:39 > 19.40 , 43.09, 1:40.47, 3:25, 12:31, 26:05, and 9214 in the decathlon

Put $500,000 appearance fees, $200k in winnings, 6-8 big elite fields together per year for the decathlon like the marathon and it will likely be a better mark.

On a weekend full of La Liga action, ex-Real Madrid superstar CR7 finally scoring his first goals for Juventus, Formula One ? and others, Spain’s biggest selling sports paper dedicated its first four pages to athletics. Kevin Mayer gets a mention too, he’s on the third picture of this tweet.

https://twitter.com/cathal_dennehy/status/1041698799893327873?s=21

I am shocked that so many on this board know so little about track and field, and in particular the multi-events.

In order to podium finish in the Olympics or the Worlds as a decathlete you need to be world-class in at least 3 events (world-class being determined by the "old" A/B Standard).

The reason why the 100m times in the decathlon are so "slow" is because decathlon 100m and 110mH are run first thing in the morning. How fast are you at 7am or 8am in the morning?

The decathlon is about being an all-around athlete. What many of you fail to appreciate is that the very elite decathletes (Top 10) can enter into a national track and field meet and not get embarrassed in their chosen specialty events. That is, most decathletes have "favorite" events in the decathlon.

Damian Warner, the Canadian decathlete, is the best long jumper and is in the Top 2 hurdlers in the country. His high jump PR is 5-10 cm from the Oly/Diamond league standard of 2.20.

The retired Ashton Eaton could enter into the 60, 60mH, 100m, 110mH, LJ, 400m, and the 400mH and hold his own with anyone on the Diamond League, Oly or World stage.

Podium-level (Oly and Worlds) are female multi-eventers are usually world-class 3-4 events. Usually hurdles, long jump, and high jump; but many are also outstanding throwers. Skutje of Lithuania has a 17.86m shot put. Barbara Spotakova the Olympic Javelin Champ was a heptathlete; or even sprinting (200m; Dapne Schippers).

Dapne Schippers had to "retire" from the multi-events because of a foot injury. High jumping puts way to much pressure on the joints in and around the foot and ankle; this is the same issue that made Jessica Ennis (Olympic Champion) switch sides (approaching from the right to approaching from the left) when high jumping. Dapne has always been super fast. Everyone in the multi-events community has known this and everyone in the Netherlands has known Daphne was a quality sprinter from a very, very young age.

Note: All of these claims are easily verifiable if one were to search the IAAF website.

Caitlyn Jenner probably killed the interest in the Decathlon. When people realize that the world's one time greatest athlete was a woman its credibility was shot.

Crazy to think that woman had greater athletic ability than any man alive! Long live the Amazon!

Jo72 wrote:

I wonder when the decathlon was dropped in perception from "King of Athletes" to uninteresting event to complicated for the audience.

When Superstars stopped sometime in the 1980s ....