 The Decathlon consists of four track and six field events held on
two consecutive days in this sequence: 100m, long jump, shot, high jump, 400m, 110m
hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1500m. The athlete is allowed three trials in the
long jump and throwing events and a special rule applicable to the Decathlon (and women's
Heptathlon) is that two false starts can be committed in the track events without
incurring disqualification. Placings are determined
by the total number of points scored per the IAAF scoring tables. Several versions of
these have been used over the years, the current version since 1985 (modified recently to
take account of single centimetre measurements in the long throws).
The Decathlon entered the Olympic programme in 1912 and
right away became the centre of fierce controversy. The event was won easily by Jim Thorpe
(USA), who was later branded as a professional and whose name was deleted from the
official results. It was not until some 70 years later that his gold medals (he also won
the Pentathlon) were restored to his descendants.
Ever since the heyday of Britain's Daley Thompson, who won
12 consecutive Decathlons between 1980 and 1986 including two Olympic golds and one world
title, a score of 9000 points has been a possibility. Dan O'Brien (USA) succeeded Thompson
as world record holder in 1992 with 8891 points and Tomās Dvorāk from the Czech Republic
came agonisingly close to the target with 8994 in 1999. |
