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.
Carolina Evelyn Klüft is a retired Swedish track and field athlete who competed in the heptathlon, pentathlon, long jump and triple jump. She was an Olympic Champion, having won the heptathlon title in 2004. She was also a three-time World heptathlon champion, World Indoor pentathlon champion, a two-time European heptathlon champion and a two-time European Indoor pentathlon champion. Klüft is the only athlete ever to win three consecutive world titles in the heptathlon. She was unbeaten in 22 heptathlon and pentathlon competitions from 2002 to 2007, her entire combined events career as a senior athlete, winning nine consecutive gold medals in major championships.
Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee is a retired American track and field athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the heptathlon as well as long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals in those two events at four different Olympic Games. Sports Illustrated for Women magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the Greatest Female Athlete of All-Time. She is on the board of directors for USA Track & Field (U.S.A.T.F.), the national governing body of the sport.
Dame Denise Rosemarie Lewis is a British sports presenter and former track and field athlete, who specialised in the heptathlon. She won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, was twice Commonwealth Games champion, was the 1998 European Champion and won World Championships silver medals in 1997 and 1999. She was the first European to win the Olympic heptathlon, though Europeans, including Briton Mary Peters, had won the Olympic pentathlon precursor event.
The women's heptathlon competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens was held at the Olympic Stadium on 20–21 August.
Kelly Jade Sotherton is a British former heptathlete, long jumper and relay runner. In the heptathlon she was the bronze medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics and, following the disqualification of two other athletes, also at the 2008 Summer Olympics, as well as being part of the bronze medal-winning team in the Women's 4x400m relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics. As such she is one of only five women to win multiple medals in Olympic heptathlon. She also won a bronze at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics, and was the heptathlon gold medallist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Indoors, Sotherton was a World silver medallist, and twice European silver medallist in pentathlon, in which she was ranked seventh all-time in 2022.
Marla Lee Runyan is an American track and field athlete, road runner and marathon runner who is legally blind. She is a three-time national champion in the women's 5000 metres. She is also an athlete that competed in both the Paralympics and the Olympics, both reaching the finals.
Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill is a retired British track and field athlete from England, specialising in the heptathlon and 100 metres hurdles. As a competitor in heptathlon, she is the 2012 Olympic champion, a three-time world champion, and the 2010 European champion. She is also the 2010 World Indoor pentathlon champion. A member of the City of Sheffield & Dearne athletic club, she is a former British national record holder for the heptathlon. She is also a former British record holder in the 100 metres hurdles, the high jump and the indoor pentathlon.
Zita Ajkler is a Hungarian long jumper. She is a 16-time Hungarian national champion in the long jump, triple jump, heptathlon, and 100-meter hurdles. Her personal best is 676 cm in the long jump and 13.99 m in the triple jump ; 13.75 s in 100-meter hurdles (wind-1.2), 8.35 s in 60-meter hurdles, and 5,323 points in the heptathlon.
Diana Lynn Pickler is an American heptathlete from Shreveport, Louisiana. She has represented her country at the Olympic and World Championship levels and was the 2009 US heptathlon champion. Her twin sister, Julie Pickler, is also a track and field athlete.
Brianne Theisen-Eaton is a retired Canadian track and field athlete who competed in the heptathlon and women's pentathlon. She won the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Theisen-Eaton holds the Canadian record for the heptathlon with 6,808 points, as well as the indoor pentathlon with a score of 4768 points. Theisen-Eaton is a heptathlon silver medallist from the 2013 World Championships and 2015 World Championships, as well as a pentathlon silver medalist from the 2014 World Indoor Championships. She is the first and only Canadian woman to podium in the multi-events at the World Championships. Theisen-Eaton won Commonwealth Games gold in the heptathlon at Glasgow 2014 and was the 2016 World Indoor Champion in the pentathlon. She also won a bronze medal as part of the women's 4 x 400 m relay at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.
Yuki Nakata is a Japanese track and field athlete who competes in the women's heptathlon. She represented Japan at the 2004 Summer Olympics and has competed twice at the World Championships in Athletics. She was the silver medallist at the 2009 Asian Athletics Championships and the 2010 Asian Games and has won the heptathlon at the East Asian Games and the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships. With straight wins from 2002 to 2010, she is a nine time national champion and her best of 5962 points for the heptathlon is the national record for the event.
Lucimara Silvestre da Silva is a Brazilian track and field athlete who competes in the heptathlon. She represented her country at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and competed at the World Championships in Athletics in 2007. Her personal best of 6076 points is the South American record for the event.
Pramila Gudanda Aiyappa is an Indian heptathlete. She made her official debut for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where she placed 24th in the women's heptathlon event, with a total score of 5,548 points.
Jacquelyn Kate "Jackie" Johnson is an American heptathlete. She is a four-time NCAA outdoor champion, and a three-time NCAA indoor champion (2006–2008) while competing for Arizona State University. She also set a personal best of 6,347 points by placing second at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, which guaranteed her a qualifying place for the Olympics. Johnson was a member of the track and field team for the Arizona State Sun Devils, where she wa coached and trained by Dan O'Brien, gold medalist in the decathlon at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2008, she won the Honda Sports Award as the nation's best female collegiate track and field athlete.
Nafissatou "Nafi" Thiam is a Belgian athlete specialising in multi-event competition. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, winning the heptathlon event at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Thiam is the only Belgian athlete, male or female, to successfully defend an Olympic title and only the second woman after Jackie Joyner-Kersee to win back-to-back Olympic titles in the event.
Magdalena Szczepańska is a retired Polish heptathlete. She won a silver medal at the 2004 European Combined Events Cup in Hengelo, Netherlands, and then represented her nation Poland in heptathlon at the Olympics in Athens a few months later, finishing in twenty-first place. Szczepańska trained under the tutelage of head coach Jerzy Skucha for the national team, while competing at AZS AWFiS Gdańsk.
Marsha Mark-Baird is a track and field athlete from Trinidad and Tobago, specializing in the heptathlon. She represented her nation Trinidad and Tobago in two editions of the Olympic Games, finishing twenty-second in Sydney and twenty-fifth in Athens with a then national record and her personal best score of 5962 points. Leading up to her Olympic career, Mark-Baird also picked up a silver medal in heptathlon at the 1998 Central American and Caribbean Games in Maracaibo, Venezuela.
Michaela Hejnová is a Czech former track and field athlete, specializing in the heptathlon. She has competed for the Czech Republic at the 2004 Summer Olympics and has won a bronze medal in heptathlon at the 2003 Summer Universiade in Daegu, South Korea. Hejnova set a personal best score of 6065 points at a national meet in Hradec Králové. While competing at PSK Olymp Praha in Prague, Hejnova trains for the national track and field team in heptathlon under the tutelage of her personal coach Martina Blažková.
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