Could any pro athlete in the big sports beat Aston Eaton in any event in the decathlon?

Come on man, nobody cares what anybody did in practice. Nobody cares that Irving Salandino once scratched a 9.0m+ LJ. And, especially, nobody cares what Ryan Bailey did in warm ups once.

Why? Because these marks do not exist. If they were not done IN A MEET DURING COMPETITION RECORDED AS AN OFFICIAL MEASUREMENT it does not exist. Period.

Sweet mercy you must be a long jumper or triple jumper...

-"What'd you jump?"

-"Man, only 21' but you should have seen the one I fouled!!!"

"The definition of the decathlon is just as arbitrary as any other sport. It in no way defines the "World's Best Athlete" anymore than another sport. Put it this way-if 1 sprint, 1 throw and 1 jump were subtracted and the marathon, 10k and steeple were added, would the current elite still be the best?

Some of us simply judge this stuff on common sense. Essentially zero percent of the world's population has or will ever have a chance to pole vault, high jump or throw a javelin in any type of competition. That's before money is factored into the equation. For being the 'world's best athlete' Eaton sure is poor and unknown. If you had a son tomorrow and the doctor told you 'This kid can either set the WR in the decathlon or start on a team that wins the World Cup or NBA title, which woud you honestly choose? What do you think the majority of the world's population would choose? That ought to tell you the priority of T&F and the relative amount of elite athletes it siphons from major sports.

I played on a team with a guy who high jumped 7 feet in high school. He was unremarkable at other sports and didn't care about high jump or even like T&F very much-never even trained outside of track season. He wasn't a freakish athlete or remarkable at any other sport. At least half the NBA could high jump 7 Feet at their peak athleticism if they trained for the event.

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Saying you can't call the best decathlete the world's greatest athlete is like saying you can't call the NBA championship team the world's greatest basketball team because the rules are arbitrary. The sport of ATHLETICS chooses the ten events that will define the world's greatest athlete. The winner is the world's greatest athlete. The record holder is the best ever.

Basketball players are basketball players, footballers are footballers, and people in athletics are athletes. Anyone wants to contend for the title of world's greatest athlete, they are welcome to compete in athletics and put up a real, verifiable mark.

Don't go so far, I can beat him in one of his events.

Bryan Clay competed in a bunch of SPARQ tests and recorded the highest/nearly the highest ratings ever recorded in each of the tests. They have tests that are baseball-, football-, basketball-, and soccer-specific, and Clay dominated them all.

http://www.topendsports.com/testing/sparq-rating-system.htm

The only baseball player ever with a higher baseball-specific rating is Jacoby Ellsbury.

And guess what...according to this rating system, neither LeBron or Derrick Rose is the most athletic basketball player. Brandan Wright (a backup on the Mavericks) edged out Rose (who ended up 2nd). Clay beat them both while completing all the tests for the previously-mentioned sports in the same day.

http://studentsports.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=427176

Clay posted by far the highest all-time general athletic assessment score, too.

I know that this doesn't exactly answer the OP's question, but it's still an interesting perspective. Bottom line, even using the rating system that caters to specific explosive tests for athletes in the major sports, a decathlete outperformed nearly all of the world's best recognizable pro athletes.

I was going to post this exact same thing re: the SPARQ test. Clay scored like a 130 while reggie bush, who I'm sure many uninformed decathlon bashing XC runners on here consider to be leagues ahead of decathletes in terms of athleticsm, scored a 98.

Keep in mind that this SPARQ test is something NFL players train for specifically while B Clay does not. It is a very fair comparison though given the nature of Clays training for the Deca.

Also keep in mind that we are talking about B Clay, a gold medalist and phenomenal athlete, but I'm guessing world record holder Ashton Eaton would score similarly if not higher.

Moral of the story: based on raw athleticism speed power, agility, reaction, quickness (and throw in technical prowess as 'are you a ritard?' so aptly stated 2 pages back) and I present you the worlds greatist athlete - Ashton Eaton.

SPARQ wrote:

And guess what...according to this rating system, neither LeBron or Derrick Rose is the most athletic basketball player. Brandan Wright (a backup on the Mavericks) edged out Rose (who ended up 2nd). Clay beat them both while completing all the tests for the previously-mentioned sports in the same day.

It looks to me like only high schoolers took the SPARC test because pros can't be arsed to waste their time on message board fantasies. Derrick Rose is listed as a rising high school junior, so probably 16 years old.

You could pick 10 pro athletes(not track and field guys) from the major sports - one for each event. And it would not be close.

Eaton by a street.

crowhop wrote:

Mechanics of the javelin mirror an outfielder's crow hop much more than a pitcher's wind up. Without any practice time I'd bet most outfielders would do better than pitchers with it getting more even the more time the pitchers have to adjust.

Based on my limited experience with throwing a javelin, it is different than throwing a baseball.

mommaspinoni wrote:

You could pick 10 pro athletes(not track and field guys) from the major sports - one for each event. And it would not be close.

Eaton by a street.

This is flat out false. You could definitely hand pick 10 guys and beat his score.

I think you guys are missing how many NFL players were track guys in college... and some of them REALLY good track guys. Some of the fastest men on the planet are in the NFL. Plus you have lineman and linebackers that were great in throwing events.

RG3 would dust him in every sprint event, especially hurdles.

Eaton would make a NFL football team cry if they competed against him using their best guy in each event in a deca.

I don't see how anyone could see it any other way.

In the javelin

I think Jordan would have made a quality decathlete. I don't think that his long jump would have been too extreme, but it would have been solid and certainly his high jump. Then he has enough power for the throws but not too much mass to be unable to hurdle and run a 1500. Then there's Wilt, he actually was a good decathlete. The best basketball or football player in terms of athleticism would probably turn out to be somebody more obscure who doesn't have quite as much sports specific talent but is a professional because he has the conditioning to make up for it though. Think Juantorena, couldn't shoot a basketball but could run with a 9 foot stride.

Irrespective of everthing that is being said even if you got a pro from another sport to focus on ONE event, Ashton has the same capacity for improvement if he was to focus on that ONE event.

Ie He could potentially break 10seconds for 100m if he devoted all his time to being a 100m sprinter.

You don't think that out of all the events including the throws there aren't people who have more natural ability?

It's an obvious question. "Could Could any pro athlete in the big sports beat Aston Eaton in any event in the decathlon?" Yes, many could.

Passe, but i think the moaning about LeBron James being 6'8" might be bollox. Juergen Hingsen was 6'7" and made a decent career in the decathlon. A big guy might lose out on some events, but the throws will come easy.

RG3 takes him in the hurdles, the 100, and the 400

In a radio interview yesterday, Landon Donovan said that if Americans from the major sports focussed on soccer instead, he would be out of a job. Perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, however, one of America's best players in another minor (USA) sport definitely acknowledged that our best athletes turn to the big $ (in USA) sports hurting our international competitiveness in soccer. I think there is undeniable analogy to Decathlon ... and most T&F events for that matter.

first exception that comes to mind - who from major sports would beat Rupp or Ryan Hall in their events?

Not sure if he's been mentioned, but Chris Wondolowski is an MLS player for San Jose who ran a 4:15 mile in high school, so he's got the 1500 easily.