Olympic decathlon winners earn the title “the world’s greatest athlete.” Whether or not that’s true, the history of the decathlon is definitely the story of some of the greatest athletes to ever grace the Olympic stage.
1. 1948 - Young Mathias strikes gold
At age 17, American Bob Mathias became the youngest man to win an Olympic track and field gold medal. Mathias, who'd only taken up the decathlon four months prior to the 1948 Games, lost points in the shot put when he exited the throwing circle from the front after his best throw, not realizing that to do so was a foul. He probably lost points in the discus as well, after the marker for his best throw was misplaced. Officials estimated his distance, which remained good enough to put him in first place. The decathlon ended in darkness, with car headlights used for illumination during the ninth event, the javelin throw. Tired and feeling ill, Mathias nevertheless wrapped up the first of his two decathlon gold medals with 6628 points.2. 1960 - Strong 1500 wins for Johnson
American Rafer Johnson and Taiwan’s Chuan-Kwang Yang battled to the final event in 1960. The scenario was not unusual, except that these two competitors were not only college teammates but training partners at UCLA. Yang won four of the five events on day one, but Johnson crushed all competitors in the shot put to take the overall lead, 55 points ahead of Yang. The pair split the next four events, leaving Johnson with a 67-point lead entering the 1500, one of Johnson’s weakest events. Yang needed to defeat the American by 10 seconds to take the gold, but Johnson’s strategy of running stride-for-stride with Yang paid off. Johnson ran a personal best 4:49.7, just 1.2 seconds behind Yang, to win the gold with an Olympic record 8392 points.
