Decathlon, Men

Coming into the US Olympic Trials, it was considered possible that the United States might sweep the medals in this event at London. Bryan Clay was the defending champion, but he had been surpassed in 2010-11 by Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee. They had gone 1-2 at the 2011 World Championships, with Hardee winning, Eaton second. Unfortunately, Clay was struggling in 2012 with injuries and would not finish the Olympic Trials, and the US had only two entrants in London. At the Trials Eaton won, breaking the world record with a mark of 9,039 points.

In the London event, Eaton and Hardee went into the lead early, with Eaton posting the fastest 100 metres, and Hardee second. They remained 1-2 after the long jump, Eaton again winning that event with a mark that would have placed him seventh in the open long jump. Hardee, bigger and stronger than Eaton, moved up after the shot put, but still trailed Eaton by over 100 points. After the first day, Eaton had a 220 point lead on Hardee, who was 55 points ahead of Canada’s Damian Warner. In sixth place was Cuba’s Leonel Suárez, who was considered a medal favorite and was strong on the second day.

Hardee opened the second day by posting 13.54 in the high hurdles, the second fastest ever in a decathlon, although barely ahead of Eaton’s 13.56. When the two made heights in the pole vault, with Hardee still second, but over 200 points ahead of Germany’s Rico Freimuth, the gold and silver medals were decided. Hardee had some concern in the javelin as he had had surgery in the past year on his throwing arm, but got the spear out to 66.65 and actually moved up closer to Eaton, but far from gold medal pace. Suárez rocketed the jav out to 76.94 and moved into third place. In the 1500 Eaton and Hardee ran safe paces, finishing with gold and silver, as Suárez hung on for the bronze medal.