The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα and ἄθλος. Events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged on a points system in each event, not by the position achieved. The decathlon is contested mainly by male athletes, while female athletes typically compete in the heptathlon.
A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά and ἄθλος. A competitor in a heptathlon is referred to as a heptathlete.
The pentathlon or women's pentathlon is a combined track and field event in which each woman competes in five separate events over one day. The distance or time for each event is converted to points via scoring tables, with the overall ranking determined by total points. Since 1949 the events have been sprint hurdling, high jump, shot put, long jump, and a flat race. The sprint hurdles distance was 80 m outdoors until 1969 and thereafter 100 m; in indoor pentathlon the distance is 60 m. The flat race was 200 m until 1976 and thereafter 800 m. In elite-level outdoor competition, the pentathlon was superseded in 1981 by the heptathlon, which has seven events, with both 200 m and 800 m, as well as the javelin throw. Pentathlon is still contested at school and masters level and indoors.
Bryan Ezra Tsumoru Clay is an American decathlete who was the 2008 Summer Olympic champion for the decathlon and was also World champion in 2005.
Ashton James Eaton is a retired American decathlete and two-time Olympic champion, who holds the world record in the indoor heptathlon event. Eaton was the second decathlete to break the 9,000-point barrier in the decathlon, with 9,039 points, a score he bettered on August 29, 2015, when he beat his own world record with a score of 9,045 points, and remains the only person to exceed 9000 points twice. His world record was broken by Frenchman Kevin Mayer on September 16, 2018, with a total of 9,126 points, who became the third man to pass the 9,000-point barrier.
Larbi Bourrada is an Algerian decathlon athlete. He is the four-time African champion and the African record holder in the event. He has also competed in the pole vault, winning the All-Africa Games title in 2011 and two silver medals at the African Championships. In 2012 his doping sample at a competition came back positive for the banned steroid Stanozolol, and he was given a two-year ban from athletics.
Makeba Alcide is a Saint Lucian track and field athlete. She holds the Saint Lucia records and OECS records for women's 60m Hurdles, Pentathlon and Heptathlon, and the Saint Lucia record for 100m Hurdles.
Kevin Mayer is a French athlete specialising in decathlon and indoor heptathlon. He is two-time world champion, two-time Olympic silver medalist and the world record holder in the decathlon since 2018. He is also a world and three-time European champion in heptathlon.
David Klech is an American decathlete. He attended the University of Oregon, after transferring from the University of California, Los Angeles.
James Gunnar Nixon is an American track and field athlete who competes in the decathlon. He broke the American high school record for the event in 2011, and was the World Junior Champion in 2012. He won his first national title indoors in 2013, and was runner-up at the 2013 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. His personal record for the decathlon is 8313 points at the 2013 IAAF World Championships.
Kai Kazmirek is a German track and field athlete who competes in the decathlon. He holds a personal best of 8580 points for the event achieved in Rio 2016, as well as an indoor heptathlon best of 6173 points. He is a member of LG Rhein-Wied athletics club.
Ana Camila Donatella Pirelli Cubas is a Paraguayan track and field athlete who competes in the heptathlon. She is the Paraguayan record holder in the event with her personal best score of 5733 points. Pirelli holds more than a dozen national records in events as varied as the 100 metres hurdles, shot put and the indoor women's pentathlon. Pirelli was the heptathlon silver medallist at the 2013 South American Championships in Athletics. She won the gold medal at the 2013 Bolivarian Games and the 2014 South American Games, breaking games records at both competitions. Pirelli is tied to Paraguay Marathon Club and competes in Paraguay's national competitions under the Federación Paraguaya de Atletismo.
Combined events at the Summer Olympics have been contested in several formats at the multi-sport event. There are two combined track and field events in the current Olympic athletics programme: a men's decathlon and a women's heptathlon.
Janieve Russell is a Jamaican track and field athlete who competes mainly in the 400 metres hurdles and the 400 metres sprint. She won an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 × 400 m relay in Tokyo 2021, where she also finished fourth in the 400m hurdles final in a personal best of 53.08 secs. She is a four-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, winning the 400m hurdles title in 2018 and 2022, and the 4 × 400 m relay in 2014 and 2018. She has also won two relay silvers at the World Championships and a relay gold at the World Indoor Championships.
Nadine Visser is a Dutch track and field athlete who competed in the combined events until 2017 and specialises in short hurdling since 2018.
Darko Pešić is a Montenegrin athlete competing in the combined events. He finished sixth in the heptathlon at the 2017 European Indoor Championships. He holds multiple national records in various events.
Majed Radhi Mubarak Al-Sayed is a Kuwaiti decathlete. He won the silver medal at the 2019 Asian Championships. He is the current national record holder in both decathlon and heptathlon.
The 2001 Russian Indoor Athletics Championships was the 10th edition of the national championship in indoor track and field for Russia. It was held on 16–18 February at the Alexander Gomelsky Universal Sports Hall CSKA in Moscow. A total of 28 events were contested over the three-day competition. It was used for selection of the Russian team for the 2001 IAAF World Indoor Championships.
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