The 4th edition of the X-Athletics Meeting in Clermont-Ferrand last weekend was a magnet for some of the world’s best multi-eventers and continues to grow into its position as the first major international combined event competition of the year. In the run up to the competition it seemed easier to list who wasn’t competing, although…
World Tour of Decathlon: 2020 in Review
We expected 2020 to be a race for decathletes to achieve the 8350 Olympic Qualifying mark, or to rank in the top 24 in the world. We expected a World Indoors, a World Juniors and an Olympic Games. But instead, the year was one of ingenuity, with decathlons in apartments, heptathlons on balconies, discus throws…
2021 Decathlon Calendar
The Decathletes of Europe Decathlon 2021 Calendar is here! Thank you to all the photographers who provided permission to use their artwork: Ulf Schiller, Athletix.ch (Simon Ehammer) Nicolas Mennetrey (Axel Hubert) Bert Hindman (Garrett Scantling) Michel Fisquet, Team Photo (Manuel Eitel, Cassandre Evans, Darko Pešic, Gaël Querin) Simone Cairoli (Simone Cairoli) Eirik Førde (Markus Rooth)…
Cassandre Evans: Decathlon is for Everybody
Debate on the shape of combined events for men and women appears every so often, usually when something happens in order to provoke that debate. Just over a year ago, in June 2019, Jordan Gray broke the 19-year old US decathlon record, shining a light again on the asymmetry of the paths laid out for…
Swiss Decathlon: The Rock Star, The Daredevil, The Bon Vivant, The Good Guy and The Champion
In July 2019, a few days ahead of the European Combined Events Super League competition in Lutsk, I shared a story celebrating (and if I’m honest, fangirling about) the return of the 2008 Olympic silver medallist, Andrei Krauchanka. A few hours later, I received a message from Matthias Steinmann, on his way to the match…
Adam Sebastian Helcelet: International Man of History
“When I was a kid,” Adam Sebastian Helcelet recalls, “Czech Republic had the greatest decathletes in the world. I watched them with my father. He said ‘You are coordinated. You can feel your body, and I guess that you’re going to be a big guy. You should try it.’” He did. His story would quickly…
Carolin Schäfer: What If?
Changing coach in the run up to the Olympics. Trying out a new technique and waiting out the critics. Deciding to forgo a World Championships place and playing the long game. Carolin Schafer has made a number of big decisions in the last year. All of them brought risk, questions and a test of faith. …
Vanessa Chefer: The First Girl, on the First Day
On the first day of the first competition at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, the heptathlon was the first event. The first discipline was the 100m hurdles, and the first girl, in the first lane was Brazil’s own Vanessa Chefer. Four years later, and 25 years after she first told her mother that she wanted…
Garrett Scantling: Is it a bird? Is it a plane?
After finishing fourth at the 2016 US Olympic trials, Garrett Scantling disappeared from decathlon. But he streaked back into the world of multi-events earlier this year, with one of the best global heptathlon marks of the indoor season. Faster than a speeding bullet, he tried his hand at NFL. He then channelled his inner Clark…
Darko Pešić: Combined Events and Cannonballs
The world has been plunged into chaos by the spread of coronavirus. Meetings are cancelled. The Olympics have been postponed for a year. Entire countries are in lockdown for the foreseeable future. But few athletes are better equipped to cope with the need to be self-sufficient than Montenegro’s finest, Darko Pešić. Growing up in…