Decathlon, Men

The United States had won all the Olympic decathlons since 1928, but in 1964 they had no leading contender. The early favorite was C. K. Yang who had won the 1960 silver medal behind Rafer Johnson. But the event was in turmoil in 1964. In 1962, the pole vault was being converted to a fiberglass pole and the new heights achieved made pole vault points well out of proportion to the other events. Yang was a top pole vaulter and at the 1963 Mt. Sac Relays he shattered the world record with 9,121 points, breaking the record after only nine events, and clearing 4.84 [15-10½) in the vault in the process. Yang would later clear 5 metres [16-4¾) in the vault. The problem with the vault led officials to change the scoring tables the year before the Tokyo Olympics, which took away much of Yang’s dominance over the field. After that change, there was no clear favorite in Tokyo. Vasily Kuznetsov of the USSR had won the European Championships in 1954, 1958, and 1962, and had won bronze medals in both 1956 and 1960. But he was 32-years-old in 1964, and not at his best. At Tokyo, the gold medal went to the German Willi Holdorf, who had been German champion in 1960, 1961, and 1963. Yang was injured at Tokyo and was a well-beaten fifth, with Kuznetsov back in seventh.