Decathletes are generally considered fantastic all-around athletes. They can run fast, jump high, and throw far and the world record holder, currently the U.S.'s Ashton Eaton, is colloquially known as the greatest athlete in the world. While I think it's awesome that track and field has a combined event competition that tests athletes over the span of athletic areas, I personally would kind of like to see some changes made to this ancient competition.
The events contested in the decathlon are the 100 meters, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 meters, 110 meters hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw, and 1500 meters. While it does span much of the athletic spectrum, I think if we really want a multi-event competition that is representative of all of track and field as a whole, it should be changed.
The decathlon is made up of four track and six field events. It makes sense to me that it should equally cover the two sides of athletics and have five of each. Half of the field events in the decathlon are throwing events, and, while they're all different in the object thrown and how these objects are thrown, I think the competition could be made more representative of athletics if one of these three were dropped and replaced with a running event. My choice would would be to drop the discus; shot put and javelin are probably the more iconic throwing events.
In its place, I would put a distance event. While 1500 meters may seem sufficiently long, especially to guys training predominantly for strength and speed, it's only 15% the length of the longest track race. For the world's best all-around athletes to show that they can really live up to that nickname, I would add in either the 3000 meters or even the 5000. If it's the 3k, then I would drop the 1500 down to the 800 because the 3000 could be argued to be middle distance like the 1500 (and 800) and would probably be better paired with a shorter, more different mid-d race. (The 800, while only a lap longer than the already contested 400, is very different from the sprint). If it's the 5k, a fully long distance race, then I'd keep the mid-d 1500.
While I think these changes would make for a decathlon more representative of the athletics spectrum and would prove someone to be more of an all-around athlete, there are some obvious problems with changing it. Officially changing even one of the events would automatically outdate all the scores and records of the current decathlon — it would be starting all over again because the point scales could not be compared with different event(s) being contested.
Not in foreseeable future will the decathlon be altered, but if it ever is, I hope it'll span the whole athletics spectrum and cover a longer distance. I don't think anyone would doubt that great long distance running is a prominent and undeniable form of athleticism.
The events contested in the decathlon are the 100 meters, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 meters, 110 meters hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw, and 1500 meters. While it does span much of the athletic spectrum, I think if we really want a multi-event competition that is representative of all of track and field as a whole, it should be changed.
The decathlon is made up of four track and six field events. It makes sense to me that it should equally cover the two sides of athletics and have five of each. Half of the field events in the decathlon are throwing events, and, while they're all different in the object thrown and how these objects are thrown, I think the competition could be made more representative of athletics if one of these three were dropped and replaced with a running event. My choice would would be to drop the discus; shot put and javelin are probably the more iconic throwing events.
In its place, I would put a distance event. While 1500 meters may seem sufficiently long, especially to guys training predominantly for strength and speed, it's only 15% the length of the longest track race. For the world's best all-around athletes to show that they can really live up to that nickname, I would add in either the 3000 meters or even the 5000. If it's the 3k, then I would drop the 1500 down to the 800 because the 3000 could be argued to be middle distance like the 1500 (and 800) and would probably be better paired with a shorter, more different mid-d race. (The 800, while only a lap longer than the already contested 400, is very different from the sprint). If it's the 5k, a fully long distance race, then I'd keep the mid-d 1500.
While I think these changes would make for a decathlon more representative of the athletics spectrum and would prove someone to be more of an all-around athlete, there are some obvious problems with changing it. Officially changing even one of the events would automatically outdate all the scores and records of the current decathlon — it would be starting all over again because the point scales could not be compared with different event(s) being contested.
Not in foreseeable future will the decathlon be altered, but if it ever is, I hope it'll span the whole athletics spectrum and cover a longer distance. I don't think anyone would doubt that great long distance running is a prominent and undeniable form of athleticism.
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