As he has for the past four years, Ashton Eaton figures to spend the next four years and beyond being recognized more in public in just about any other country in the world other than the one he calls home.
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“Eaton, a 28-year-old OR native, finished off his second-straight decathlon gold by placing first in the 1,500-meter race, the final event in the two-day, 10-event competition”.
“So we throw the shot put 14 metres and they throw 22 metres, and they think “that’s not very special” or you see us run 1,500 (metres) in 4.20 and we are lying on the ground dying, and people out there can run it a lot faster”, he said.
The American again proved why on Thursday evening by winning gold in the Rio decathlon. Andre de Grasse of Canada finished.24 behind and Christophe Lemaitre of France squeaked out bronze by.003 over Adam Gemili of Britain.
It is a straightforward enough template: Usain Bolt, triple Olympic 100 and 200 metres champion.
Before most of the crowd had arrived, the U.S. women’s 4x100m relay team, disqualified in the morning’s heat but reinstated on appeal, took the opportunity to record a qualifying time for tomorrow’s final in a re-run involving just themselves. Eaton then ended the day with a virtually uncontested season-best 46.07 400. New Zealand’s Tomas Walsh got bronze with 21.36.
Muhammad’s American colleague Ashley Spencer came through with a late run to take the bronze medal ahead of the Czech Republic’s double world champion Zuzana Hejnova, clocking a personal best of 53.72.
Eaton already belonged to the pantheon of great American decathletes, which began when Jim Thorpe won the first time it was held at the Olympics, in 1912 in Stockholm.
“We are making history out here”, Muhammad said of the USA team’s gold rush.
Nearly complete domination by the United States, with four gold medals out of the six handed out during the day. Now he has individual gold to go with his 400 hurdles silver medal and 1,600 relay gold from 2008.
With just the clock and the crowd for company in their re-run hours later, they took the stick around in 41.77 seconds to knock slowest-qualifier China out the final and get in through the back door.
“We were laughing and joking out there”, English Gardner said. “Be patient. and just do your job'”.
Eaton won two of the 10 events – the long jump and 400m – and finished second to Warner in the 100m and 110m hurdles.
London’s Damian Warner has won a bronze medal in the decathlon at the Rio Olympics.
Eaton adds the 2016 Olympic gold medal to the one he won in London in 2012.
Eaton had briefly darted away from the decathlon in the morning session to congratulate Clement as his teammate knelt exhausted in the midday sun after the hurdles final.
Yeah, those two Olympic gold medals in one of the most demanding athletic events on the planet would suggest he’s been representing the US just fine.
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“I don’t need to prove anything else”, he said. He tied the Olympic record with 8,893 points.
