American Ashton Eaton reclaims the Decathlon World Record for the ? Race after 13 years

Swiffness! · June 2012

Needing a personal best in the grueling finale, the 1,500 meters, to get the record, Eaton came through Saturday night in the U.S. Olympic trials, running the last event in 4 minutes, 14.48 seconds to finish with 9,039 points and beat Roman Sebrle's 11-year-old mark by 13 points.

"It's like living an entire lifetime in two days," Eaton said. "It doesn't mean that much to the rest of the world, but to me, it's my whole world. To do the best that I possibly could in my world makes me pretty happy."

Eaton joined the likes of Bruce Jenner, Dan O'Brien, Bob Mathias and Rafer Johnson among the Americans who have held the world record. He did it on the 100th anniversary of the first Olympic decathlon -- and many of the American greats who have made history in the event were on hand to watch Eaton.

"I thought he showed some real courage," Johnson said. "He hung in there and figured out a way to win. He was brilliant in everything he did."

He won seven of the 10 events and did most of it in terrible weather -- drizzle, rain, cold and then, finally, sunshine as he got ready for the final 1,500-meter push.

"It's like the 11th event," runner-up Trey Hardee, the defending world champion, said about the weather. "I hope when they put his name in the record books, they'll put every parenthesis, asterisk and every other mark you can put down. Every athlete out there tries to act like that stuff doesn't bother them, but it does."

He opened his pursuit Friday by setting world-best marks for the decathlon in his first two events, the 100 (10.21 seconds) and long jump (27 feet). He had a mark of 46 feet, 7 1/4 inches in shot put, cleared 6-8 3/4 in the high jump and ran the 400 in a driving rainstorm in 46.70 seconds to finish the first day in the mix for the world record.

He returned Saturday to more dreary weather, but didn't falter. The results: 13.70 seconds in the 110 hurdles, 140-5 inches in the discus, and 17-4½ in the pole vault. His javelin throw of 193-1 meant he would need to top his personal best to set the world record.

The sun finally peaked out shortly before Eaton made it to the starting line, illuminating his green and black shirt and neon orange shoes. He waved to the crowd, toed the starting line, took an early lead, stayed on pace the entire time and crossed the line with nearly 2 seconds to spare.

Eaton also overtook O'Brien's (last brotha to own it) American record of 8,891 points, which he set in 1992 -- nine years before Sebrle became the first man to break 9,000 points.

"He didn't have any letdowns," O'Brien said. "It's real easy when you're way ahead to have that letdown. That's what separates him from even myself. I don't know if I would've run my guts out in the 1,500."

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100 metres
Long jump
Shot put
High jump
400 metres
110 metres hurdles
Discus throw
Pole vault
Javelin throw
1500 metres

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