Talk:Decathlon

Bill Toomey

Shouldn't Bill Toomey be added to the list of prominent decathletes?

He was both a world record holder and an Olympic champion. I believe his 1968 400m time remains the best ever. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.152.142.46 (talk) 18:04, 10 February 2007 (UTC).

Removed content

I removed the following paragraph. It is far from encyclopedic, and, lacking citation, contributes no fact. 'To ancient Greeks and modern Germans, the decathlon performer was and is the king of athletes ^{[citation needed]}. But to most of the track world, including the United States, the decathlete is a sometime hero, recognized and applauded only when he wins the Olympic Games. Hero or forgotten man, the 10-event performer is a rare and unique breed.' Feel free to post you objections... Be Bold. ~Gertlex 04:31, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Yang Chuan-Kwang

Just a thought... since Yang Chuan-Kwang's entry was for a date in 1963, he would have been competing for the Chinese national team, and not Chinese-Taipei, since the expulsion had not yet occurred. Consider Team Canada, which changed national flags in 1965 - sports articles like Olympic medal results distinguish between the two flags based on the date. Hence, I was thinking that maybe Yang's entry should be listed with the official flag at the time. Any thoughts? Or is there already a policy in place regarding what the resolution is in such cases? Yes, this is a hot potato topic, and I perfectly understand if no one wants to touch this with a 20 foot long pole. --65.93.142.3 (talk) 05:01, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Bulleting the events

Maybe I'm victim of today's "do it now", can't wait, gotta have it pace, but I was surprised that the ten events that comprise the modern pentathlon weren't in bullet form or some other format that stood out from the prose. Contrast with heptathlon, where they're in a bullet list that immediately draws the eye to them. Would anyone object if I made a change to this page to make the list of events more visible?--NapoliRoma (talk) 02:14, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

National Records

The national records are slightly skewed, favouring old medal tables. Daley Thompson is not actually as close to Clay's or Sebrle's performances since the 80's points table had more points relative to the modern calculations (ie, 5m in 1984 = 1000 but nowadays 5m in polevault is only worth 910). I'll be reformatting the points for every national record by using the modern point calculator, with each respective national competitor's performance. Unless someone can specifically cite the IAAF method for record continuity? --Hurricane Angel (talk) 07:35, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

In the 1985 Edition of the tables, a copy of which I have on the desk in front of me, there is a note on page 103 which says:

Notes For Table

1) Thompson's score using the 1962/71 tables current at that time was less than Hingsen's world record score using the same tables. Hence his performance was not a world record and cannot be made one by a change of the tables. However, by a decision of the IAAF Council "It was decided that for the purpose of the Decathlon, as new tables come into force on 1st April, 1984, the next Decathlon World Record would have to better the best performance to date evaluated on the new tables". Thompson's performance was that target. [Note Ends] Hope that helps.Cottonshirt (talk) 07:48, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

scoring tables

It would be useful for readers to see examples of scoring tables. Can we get at least the current scoring table? Kingturtle (talk) 13:28, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

The whole concept of points and scoring tables needs to be introduced in a general way. The IAAF document (see links), in particular the description of the criteria used to construct the modern tables, on page 18, is a good reference point. Matt Whyndham (talk) 13:29, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Comment withdrawn as the issue I was describing is now fixed.66.255.24.130 (talk) 20:12, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

New points vs. old points

Something should probably be mentioned about these here? -Yupik 10:23, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

How does the scoring work?

Anyone know if women's scores are calculated into points in the same way as men's? I'm a bit suspicious of that record by Skujyte... Gdabski 22:49, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

I'd imagine that the women have differnet tables to then, just like I believe there are differnet tables between the women's heptathlon and men's decathlon. I don't know for sure, but I'd guess those events in both the womens heptathlon and women's decathlon have the same points tables. Evil Eye 19:57, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

yes, they do have different tables. Matt Whyndham (talk) 14:42, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Isnt the record by Skujyte for a decathlon? Hence, unofficial?

the Decathlon is now a defined event for Women, but not many competitions have this event, as opposed to the Heptathlon. Matt Whyndham (talk) 14:42, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

History

The article claims the first decathlon was held, "...in just one single day, October 15, 1911." This is incorrect. Modern combined event competitions as we know them started in America probably around 1880. They were at that time known as the "All Round Event" and consisted of, 100yds, shot put, high jump, 880yds walk, 16lb hammer throw, pole vault, 120yds hurdles, 56lb weight throw, long jump, 1 mile run. The whole event was completed in one day and this format proved so popular that the organisers of the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis arranged for a Decathlon to take place in conjunction, though not as an Olympic event.

Your "history" also omits any mention of the Much Wenlock Olympics, which are an important stage in the evolution of multi-event competition. In 1851 these English rural sports included a Pentathlon of high jump, long jump, putting a 36lb shot, 880yds run and climbing a 55ft rope. There are also reports from around the same time of combined events including stone throw, pole vault and long jump. Similar experiments are also to be found in Scandinavia and Germany around this time.

Experiments with early combined events competitions also include an Olympic Pentathlon in 1906, standing long jump, discus (ancient style), javelin, 200m, wrestling. By 1910 the Swedes, due to host the Olympics in 1912, were preparing to include a decathlon and pentathlon in their games and that is where your "first" decathlon comes from. There is also much fascinating insight to be gleaned from the history of multi-event scoring tables and it is to be regretted that you have not coverd this. Perhaps a whole article on scoring tables is appropriate. What do you think? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cottonshirt (talk • contribs) 08:18, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

This article also says, "So, the first decathlon world-record holder was the winner of the first completed meet. Karl Hugo Wieslander, a Swede, and Karl Ritter von Halt, a German, were announced world-record holders." which is, quite frankly, nonsense. There was no offcial World Record for the decathlon until 1922, when the Estonian athlete Aleksander Klumberg was ratified as the inaugural record holder for his performance on Sep 16/17 1922 in Helsinki, where he scored 7481.69 points. Cottonshirt (talk) 12:21, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

Copyright problem removed

Prior content in this article duplicated one or more previously published sources. The material was copied from: http://decathlonusa.typepad.com/deca/nature.html. Infringing material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.) For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. SFB 13:16, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

• I have removed a great swath of the article which has been present since 2006. This is a direct copy of information from the DECA/Decathlon Association website. Although I can't seem to find their earlier website address prior to 2007, I've a strong belief that this is the source as copies of the material can be found on discussion forums pre-dating its presence here. Not a great day for the free encyclopaedia! SFB 13:16, 7 May 2011 (UTC)