The men's decathlon was a

track and field athletics Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

event held as part of the

athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics These are the results of athletics (sport), athletics competition at the 1912 Summer Olympics. 30 events were contested, all for men only. The athletics programme grew by four events since the 1908 Summer Olympics. The 5000 and 10000 metre rac ...

programme. The competition was held from Saturday, July 13, 1912, to Monday, July 15, 1912. It was the first time the decathlon, which had been introduced in 1911, was held at the Olympics; a different ten-event competition, the

all-around The All-Around is an award given to a rodeo competitor who is most successful in two or more events. Most individual rodeos and championships determine the winner of this award at the conclusion of the other events or championships. Championship ...

, had been contested in St. Louis in 1904. Twenty-nine decathletes from twelve nations competed. NOCs could enter up to 12 athletes.Official report, p. 61.

Results

Jim Thorpe James Francis Thorpe (; May 22 or 28, 1887March 28, 1953) was an American athlete who won Olympic gold medals and played professional American football, football, baseball, and basketball. A citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was ...

's gold medal was stripped by the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

in 1913, after the IOC learned that Thorpe had taken expense money for playing baseball, violating contemporary Olympic

amateurism An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist. History H ...

rules, before the 1912 Games. This moved everyone else up in the rankings. In 1982, the IOC was convinced that the disqualification had been improper, as no protest against Thorpe's eligibility had been brought within the required 30 days, and reinstated Thorpe's medals. This made Thorpe and Hugo Wieslander co-champions. In 2022, the IOC decided to display Thorpe as the sole gold medal winner after the Swedish Olympic Committee and Wieslander's surviving family members declared Thorpe should be acknowledged as the sole Olympic champion.

Avery Brundage Avery Brundage (; September 28, 1887 – May 8, 1975) was the fifth president of the International Olympic Committee, serving from 1952 to 1972, the only American and first non-European to attain that position. Brundage is remembered as a z ...

, president of the IOC from 1952 to 1972, competed in the decathlon finishing in 16th place. Brundage did not start in the last two events of the competition.

100 metres

Long jump

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Shot put

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High jump

6 of the 29 starters did not appear for the fourth event. , width="40%" align="left" valign="top" , , width="60%" align="left" valign="top" ,

400 metres

5 more athletes, including the 6th-placed Nilsson, retired after the high jump and did not appear for the fifth event. This brought the number of non-finishers up to 11, leaving 18 to continue the competition. , width="40%" align="left" valign="top" , , width="60%" align="left" valign="top" ,

Discus throw

Philbrook scored over 1000 points in the event by breaking the previous Olympic record (listed as 41.46 metres in the 1912 official report, though actually only 40.89 set by

Martin Sheridan Martin John Sheridan (March 28, 1881 – March 27, 1918) was an Irish Americans, Irish-American athlete and three time Olympic Games gold medallist in discus throw. Born in Bohola, County Mayo, Ireland, he was a participant of both the 190 ...

in 1908). Since the

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field sport in which the participant athlete throws an oblate spheroid weight (object), weight called a discus in an attempt to mark a further distance than other competitors. It is a ...

event had been held 2 days prior to the decathlon and Armas Taipale had far exceeded the old record, Philbrook's mark was not a new record. It did vault him from 5th place to 2nd following the 6th event, however. , width="40%" align="left" valign="top" , , width="60%" align="left" valign="top" ,

110 metre hurdles

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Pole vault

Two more athletes dropped out, leaving 16 left out of the original 29. , width="40%" align="left" valign="top" , , width="60%" align="left" valign="top" ,

Javelin throw

Only 14 athletes, fewer than half of the original 29, began the penultimate event. , width="40%" align="left" valign="top" , , width="60%" align="left" valign="top" ,

1500 metres

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Final standings

Only 12 of the 29 starters finished the entire decathlon event. Thorpe's disqualification in 1913 and subsequent reinstatement 70 years later resulted in the top 4 finishers being awarded medals—2 gold, a silver, and a bronze. The IOC's 2022 decision to reinstate Thorpe as sole gold medallist resulted in there being two silver medallists instead of two gold. , width="65%" align="left" valign="top" ,

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics - Men's decathlon

Decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of 10 track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄ ...

1912 This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15. In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...