the.com/decathlon
Ten events to crown someone good at everything and great at nothing.
means An athletic contest in which competitors compete across ten separate track-and-field events, with their combined scores determining the overall winner.
from From Greek deka, "ten," joined to athlon, "contest" or "prize" — the same athlon that gives us "athlete." Greek athletes once competed for an athlon, the prize itself, before the word came to mean the struggle for it. The modern "decathlon" was assembled in this Greek spirit but is a relatively recent coinage, built to name the ten-event competition that became an Olympic fixture in the early 20th century. Its cousin pentathlon (penta, "five") is far older, a genuine event of the ancient Greek games.
- two days
- Ten events crammed into a brutal 48 hours
- olympic title
- Winner once called world's greatest athlete
- point system
- Scored by tables, not head-to-head wins
- the wall
- Final 1500m run on dead legs
- thorpe stripped
- Jim Thorpe lost gold over minor pay
olympic decathlon — 10-event track and field competition held every 4 years since 1896
ashton eaton — american decathlete who set world record of 9,039 points in 2012
roman sebrle — czech decathlete who won olympic gold in 2000 with 8,641 points