Decathlon - WikiHQ

The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of 10 track and field events. The word was formed in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek ( ) and ( ). Events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged not by the position achieved but rather on a points system in each event. The decathlon is contested mainly by male athletes, while female athletes typically compete in the heptathlon.

Traditionally, the title of "World's Greatest Athlete" has been given to the person who wins the decathlon. This began when Gustav V of Sweden told Jim Thorpe, "Sir, you are the world's greatest athlete" after Thorpe won the decathlon at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912.

The event is similar to the pentathlon held at the ancient Greek Olympics, and also similar to a competition called an "all-around", which was contested at the United States amateur championships in 1884. Another all-around was held at the 1904 Summer Olympics. The modern decathlon first appeared at the 1912 Games.

In modern athletics, the 10 events are: 100 metres, 400 metres, 1500 metres, 110 metre hurdles, long jump, high jump, pole vault, discus throw, javelin throw, and shot put. The current official decathlon world record holder is French athlete Kevin Mayer, who scored a total of 9126 points at the 2018 Décastar in France.

Historical background

The decathlon developed from the ancient pentathlon competitions held at the ancient Greek Olympics. Pentathlons involved five disciplines – long jump, discus throw, javelin throw, sprint and a wrestling match. However, in 2001, the IAAF (now World Athletics) approved scoring tables for a women's decathlon; the current world record holder is Austra Skujytė of Lithuania, with 8358 points. Women's disciplines differ from men's in the same way as for standalone events: the shot, discus, and javelin weigh less, and the sprint hurdles use lower hurdles over 100 m rather than 110 m. The points tables used are the same as for the heptathlon in the shared events. In some women's decathlon competitions, the schedule differs from the men's decathlon, with the field events switched between day one and day two. This rule was initially instituted to avoid scheduling conflicts when men's and women's decathlon competitions take place simultaneously, however by 2024 the rule was revised to allow conducting the women's decathlon using the men's event order. The inaugural Women's Decathlon World Championships used the men's ordering of events.

; Women's decathlon reversed field event order (optional)

; Day 1

100 metres
Discus throw
Pole vault
Javelin throw
400 metres

;Day 2

100 metres hurdles
Long jump
Shot put
High jump
1500 metres

One hour

The one-hour decathlon is a special type of decathlon in which the athletes have to start the last of ten events (1500 m) within sixty minutes of the start of the first event. The world record holder is Czech decathlete Robert Změlík, who achieved 7897 points at a meeting in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, in 1992.

Masters athletics

In Masters athletics, performance scores are age graded before being applied to the standard scoring table. This way, marks that would be competitive within an age division can get rated, even if those marks would not appear on the scale designed for younger age groups. Additionally, like women, the age divisions use different implement weights and lower hurdles. Based on this system, German Rolf Geese in the M60 division and American Robert Hewitt in the M80 divisions have set their respective world records over 8000 points. Using the same scale, Nadine O'Connor scored 10,234 points in the W65 division, the highest decathlon score ever recorded.

Points system

{| class="wikitable sortable floatright" style="text-align:right"

|+ Parameter values by discipline

!Event ||A ||B ||C

|align=left|100 m ||25.4347 ||18 ||1.81

|align=left|Long jump ||0.14354 ||220 ||1.4

|align=left|Shot put ||51.39 ||1.5 ||1.05

|align=left|High jump ||0.8465 ||75 ||1.42

|align=left|400 m ||1.53775 ||82 ||1.81

|align=left|110 m hurdles ||5.74352 ||28.5 ||1.92

|align=left|Discus throw ||12.91 ||4 ||1.1

|align=left|Pole vault ||0.2797 ||100 ||1.35

|align=left|Javelin throw ||10.14 ||7 ||1.08

|align=left|1500 m ||0.03768 ||480 ||1.85

The 2001 IAAF points tables use the following formulae:

Points = for track events (faster time produces a higher score)
Points = for field events (greater distance or height produces a higher score)

, , and are parameters that vary by discipline, as shown in the adjacent table, while is the performance by the athlete, measured in seconds (running), metres (throwing), or centimetres (jumping).

Benchmarks

Split evenly between the events, the following table shows the benchmark levels needed to earn 1000, 900, 800, and 700 points in each sport.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right"

! align=left|Event || 1000 pts || 900 pts || 800 pts || 700 pts || Unit

| align=left|100 m || 10.395 || 10.827 || 11.278 || 11.756 || align=left|Seconds

| align=left|Long jump || 7.76 || 7.36 || 6.94 || 6.51 || align=left|Metres

| align=left|Shot put || 18.40 || 16.79 || 15.16 || 13.53 || align=left|Metres

| align=left|High jump || 2.20 || 2.10 || 1.99 || 1.88 || align=left|Metres

| align=left|400 m || 46.17 || 48.19 || 50.32 || 52.58 || align=left|Seconds

| align=left|110 m hurdles || 13.80 || 14.59 || 15.419 || 16.29 || align=left|Seconds

| align=left|Discus throw || 56.17 || 51.4 || 46.59 || 41.72 || align=left|Metres

| align=left|Pole vault || 5.28 || 4.96 || 4.63 || 4.29 || align=left|Metres

| align=left|Javelin throw || 77.19 || 70.67 || 64.09 || 57.45 || align=left|Metres

| align=left|1500 m || 3:53.79 || 4:07.42 || 4:21.77 || 4:36.96 || align=left|Minutes:Seconds

Calculator

{|- class="wikitable calculator-container"

! Event || Score || Points

| || s || align=center|

| || cm || align=center|

| || m || align=center|

| || cm || align=center|

| || s || align=center|

! Day One || — ||

| || s || align=center|

| || m || align=center|

| || cm || align=center|

| || m || align=center|

| || m s || align=center|

! Day Two || — ||

! Total || — ||

Records

The official men's decathlon world record holder is Kevin Mayer of France, with a score of 9126 points set during the 2018 Décastar in Talence, France, which was ratified by World Athletics.

The previous record from Ashton Eaton (9045 points):

Updated 20 May 2026:

{| class="wikitable defaultleft col3center col6center"

!scope="rowgroup" rowspan=2| Area

!scope="colgroup" colspan=3| Men

!scope="colgroup" colspan=3| Women

!scope="col"| Score

!scope="col"| Season

!scope="col"| Athlete

!scope="col"| Score

!scope="col"| Season

!scope="col"| Athlete

!scope="row"| World

| 9126 || 2018 ||

| 8358 || 2005 ||

!colspan=7| Area records

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:92%; text-align:right"

|+Men's world records (WR) compared to decathlon bests (DB)

!Event

!Type

!Athlete

!Record

!Score

!Diff

!Date

!Place

! rowspan=2| 100 m

|WR

| align="left"| || 9.58 || 1202 || 136 || 16 August 2009 || align=center|Berlin || align=center |