Decathlon

A decathlon is an athletic event that involves 10 track and field events and runs for two consectutive days. The winner is determined by the amount of overall points he gets over the course of the two days. The decathlon scoring system is based on points received for each event rather than position the get. The first Olympic decathlon was held in ancient Greece in 1896. Decathlon is a sport that has the best of the best participating.

The decathlon sports event has five events on each of the two days. The decathlon events in order on day one are:

• 100-meter run-a timed race to see who can run 100 meters in the quickest time
• long jump- a competition where they compete to see who can jump the farthest from a starting point
• shot put- an athletic competition where a heavy metal ball is thrown as far as possible
• high jump- an athletic competition where athletes compete to see who can jump the highest over a horizontal high bar
• 400 meters- a race to see who can run 400 meters in the quickest time

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Day Two Consists Of:

• 100-meter hurdles-a race where they athletes must jump over hurdles
• discus- a competition where they each throw a discus to see who can throw it the farthest
• pole vault- an athletic competition where the athletes jump over a high crossbar with the help of a pole
• javelin- an athletic competition where a javelin is thrown as far as possible with the winner being the one that throws the farthest
• 1500 meters- a race to see who can run 1500 meters in the quickest time.

There have been many excellent athletes in decathlons. David Campbell was the 1956 Olympic decathlon champion as well as the 1953 National Decathlon Champion. The 1992 Summer Olympics Decathlon had athletes that were very talented, such as Dave Johnson, the Decathlon Champion for that year. All the decathlon training paid off fro Bruce Jenner, who was the 1976 Olympics Decathlon winner.

If you would like to observe how a decathlon works, consider checking out a decathlon camp. Many athletes participate in decathlon training camps to learn how to compete and get ready to compete in the Olympics. Training camps will show you what the decathlon background is all about and how they can help you. You may want to look at some pictures of a decathlon before you attend one.