Decathlon involves a system that awards points for each individual event, which includes long jump, shot put, javelin throw, discuss, and the 100-meter hurdles.
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Mathias is the only other American to repeat as a gold medalist, winning in 1948 and 1952, and Britain’s Daley Thompson is the only other two-time victor, taking gold in 1980 and 1984.
After winning his second straight Olympic gold in the men’s decathlon Ashton Eaton jokes that he’s paced himself for eight years for this moment, but was willing to run as hard as it took to win. My first thought when he crossed the finish line two positions ahead of France’s Kevin Mayer, who challenged him for gold, was “how clutch”.
Eaton, who is also the two-time reigning world champion in the event, was leading the competition at the end of Wednesday’s events and maintained that lead throughout Thursday with Mayer nipping at his heels.
“My throwing has been bad in the past, but I really got after the discus and shot here”, he added.
World champion Eaton finished with 8893 points, incredibly matching exactly the Olympic record after 10 lung-busting events.
By defending his 2012 gold, Eaton also made it three in a row for the USA, with Bryan Clay winning the event at the 2008 Beijing Games.
Eaton, 28, has dominated the challenging event throughout the decade, and led nearly start to finish in the two-day competition on Wednesday and Thursday. “I tightened over the last hurdle but I got it done”.
“I wasn’t nervous, I was willing to run myself into the hospital if I had to”, Eaton told reporters after the competition. “Our coach said before we went out there, ‘It’s just like practice, just the whole world will be watching”. “I came here with mindset of gold but there are a lot of tough competitors out there in decathlon”, Warner said.
The 2016 Summer Olympics are underway with the finest athletes from around the world trying to claim the gold in Rio. Crouser’s final attempt of the night measured 21.74 meters, with his Olympic record put surpassing the mark of 73 feet, 8 ¾ inches set by Ulf Timmermann of (formerly) East Germany in 1988.
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Taking bronze was New Zealand’s Tomas Walsh, that nation’s first medalist in the men’s shot put.
