This weekend, 12-14 August 2023, the US women’s decathlon championships take place at Hillmer Lodge Stadium, Mt SAC, California.
Earlier this year some of the best US men enjoyed a great decathlon at the Mt SAC combined events meeting, which was part of the World Athletics Combined Events tour. Harrison Williams set a world lead at the time of 8492 and qualified for the World Championships, and Allie Jones won the women’s heptathlon. This weekend it’s the turn of the US’ female decathletes at Mt SAC.
The meet has been organised by Lauren Kuntz, the new double decathlon (icosathlon) world record holder, fresh off her 11,653 points in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago.
Lauren organised that meeting after a disappointing experience with the organisers of the Icosathlon World Championships in Belgium, which took place earlier in July.
In 2021 Lauren came close to the world record at the previous edition championships in France, but when she signalled her plan to return to have another go in 2023, her path was blocked by an about-turn by the organisers. Despite previously having allowed men and women to compete together over 20 events, the organisers refused to let her compete in the ico, citing everything from costs (to which Lauren offered to contribute by bringing on board sponsors) to simply not wanting to inconvenience the male participants by having a female in the line-up, tainting their official results with her (potentially world-record breaking) presence.
After her patience, persistence and offers of creative solutions met increasingly belligerent responses, Lauren took matters into her own hands and organised her own double decathlon in Pittsburgh – open to all – where she broke the world record.
That experience is all too familiar to women who want the opportunity to compete in combined events beyond the more traditional pentathlon/heptathlon and is one of the reasons the US women’s decathlon championships were established. Participants in the 2021 iteration at San Mateo were glowing in their praise and appreciation for the way they were treated, as the stars of the show, rather than as impudent interlopers. You can read about the experiences of Jordan Gray, AnnaLee McGregor and Hanna McPhee here.
Jordan Gray is of course the current star of global women’s decathlon, well known for her leadership in making the case for women to have the opportunity to compete in decathlon, ultimately at the highest level. The national championships are a critical grass-roots-element of the infrastructure, helping women and girls who want to compete in decathlon gain experience, gain confidence, and build the portfolio of results that supports greater recognition for the event.
Jordan competed in France a few weeks ago, scoring 7838 points in a competition that had more French women finish the decathlon than there were men finishing in each of the decathlons at the WA Combined Events meeting in Bydgoszcz, the Balkan championships, and the UK championships the same weekend. And Jordan is back in Europe this weekend, called up for Team USA duty at the annual Thorpe Cup Germany v USA competition. You can read more about Jordan’s experience at the 2019 Thorpe Cup and her story as a decathlete here.
It shows how much women’s decathlon has come in just a few years that it is now encountering conflicts in schedules, the same as in every other track and field discipline. And while national team responsibilities make it impossible for Jordan to compete in California this weekend, it comes with delightful consolation that there are now more decathlons on the calendar from which to choose.
Alongside the USA, France is leading the way in supporting decathlon for women, with the French federation formally supporting the meeting in Montpellier a few weeks ago, a women’s decathlon included in the Meeting Nana Djimou earlier in the summer, and ongoing rumblings of a women’s decathlon as an exhibition event at Decastar in Talence. That’s in no small part thanks to the visibility and involvement of Marie Collonvillé, third on the all-time list behind the world record holder Austra Skujytė (whose story you can read here) and Jordan.
Girls cannot be what they cannot see, and those inspirational women are showing girls exactly what they can be.
Back to the competition this weekend at Mt SAC, and what’s special about this edition of the championships is the number of newcomers, in addition to familiar faces from previous years. Three of the twelve women lining up have competed in the championships previously: Lauren Kuntz, Corinn Brewer and Floriane Kameni. All the other athletes are making their debut in the competition: Haley Rizek, Emily Swanson, Amanda Pasko, Christine Impara, Sarah Hopkins, Katie Straus, Kristen Tarsala and Jordyn Bruce (who finished second behind Jordan Gray in France last month with 6656 points).
Decathletes of Europe will be covering the event in the usual way on social media, and you can find the live results here.
If you’d like to find out more about women’s decathlon, please check out the new women’s decathlon page here on the website. The page signposts you to features about female decathletes, some of the most commonly asked questions about women’s decathlon, and the various websites run by women’s decathlon associations which contain a rich selection of statistics and data.