To be one of only three men to have won it twice is a feat that should garner Eaton a lot more attention than it does, beyond those yogurt and credit card ads, of course.
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Eaton is the latest, and perhaps greatest, in America’s lengthy lineage of Olympic decathlon winners, which included a run of six straight gold medals between 1932 and 1960.
MEDAL ALERT@USC_Track_Field alum Dalilah Muhammad is the 1st American woman to win GOLD in the 400m IH! Ex-Stanford star Foluke Akinradewo only played the first two sets, chipping in 5 kills, before leaving with an apparent leg injury. Consider Thursday’s comment about the 200-meter silver medalist Andre De Grasse, made with De Grasse sitting next to him: “You should always want to be the best”, Bolt said.
The Americans’ duplicated Randy Barnes and John Godina, who finished first and second at the 1996 Atlanta Games. With Bolt focusing on the 200 final – part 2 of 3 for him in Rio – the Jamaicans qualified for the 4×100 final.
On Thursday, Eaton produced a solid performances throughout the day, though he was a bit off his best times and marks.
Wednesday delivered an “awesome hour” for the American team on the track.
It does feel more like a brotherhood than a guild, and one of the more reaffirming moments in sports is when the decathlon’s final event, the 1,500 meters, is done and the exhausted contestants – when they have finally picked themselves up after collapsing – congratulate one another for simply finishing. Tomas Walsh of New Zealand won bronze. With Michelle Carter taking gold in the women’s shot put the U.S.accomplished the sweep, and both attended the University of Texas.
The track and field portion of 2016 Summer Olympics continues with a school-record 17 current and former Ducks in Rio (11 on Team USA, three for Canada, and one each for Australia, Greece and Guatemala).
United States’ Tianna Bartoletta hugs her teammate Allyson Felix, right, as United States’ Morolake Akinosun, left, looks on after a women’s 4×100-meter relay after the US team dropped the baton in the morning race during the.
“We are competing against ourselves”, Eaton said. “Our coach said before we went out there, ‘It’s just like practice, just the whole world will be watching”.
And with the Rio 2016 100m already a job done, he completed the pattern over 200m here tonight in inimitable fashion, playing to the crowd at the start, getting serious, getting ahead, staying ahead.
Eaton, 28, has now won successive Olympic and world titles to confirm his status at the best all-around athlete in the world. France’s Kevin Mayer leap-frogged Warner for silver with 8,834 points.
Bronze went to Damian Warner after he overtook Kazmirek on Thursday, the fastest time in the 110m hurdles key to the Canadian’s place on the podium.
The decathlon has been contested 23 times at the Olympics since 1912.
“To win two Olympic golds in a row like Daley Thompson is very special”, he said, referring to the great British decathlete who won in 1980 and ’84.
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“Going into these Olympics I told myself that I wanted the gold medal. I knew I was going to win”, Clement said. He finished the final event – the 1,500 metres- in fourth place in a time of four minutes 24.90 seconds.
