The Men's decathlon competition at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

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, was held at the

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on 8–9 August. From the outset, new world record holder

Ashton Eaton Ashton James Eaton (born January 21, 1988) is a retired American decathlete and two-time Olympic champion, who holds the world record in the indoor heptathlon event. Eaton was the second decathlete (after Roman Šebrle) to break the 9,000-poi ...

dominated the events with teammate Trey Hardee his closest competitor. Notable for his early exit, 2004 champion and former world record holder

Roman Šebrle Roman Šebrle (; born 26 November 1974) is a retired decathlete from the Czech Republic. He is considered to be one of the best decathlon athletes of all time. Originally a high jumper, he later switched to the combined events and is a former wo ...

withdrew after finishing last in the 100 m. Eaton's 10.35

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at ...

was the top time of the day, Hardee's 10.42 the next best. His 8.03

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

was almost half a metre further than any other competitor.

Dmitriy Karpov Dmitriy Vasilyevich Karpov (Дмитрий Васильевич Карпов; born 23 July 1981 in Karaganda) is a Kazakhstani athlete who competes in decathlon and heptathlon (the latter during the winter season). He won the bronze medal in the ...

won the

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

, but Eaton's 14.66 was just 12 cm short of his personal record. Leonel Suárez won the

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

, but Eaton tied with several members of the field for second best. And Eaton's 46.90

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is ...

was over a full second faster than anybody else in the field.

Damian Warner Damian David George Warner (born November 4, 1989) is a Canadian track and field athlete specializing in decathlon. He is the 2020 Olympic champion and a four-time world medallist (silver in 2015 and 2023, bronze in 2013 and 2019). Warner also ...

had a 40-point advantage for third position after the first day. Hardee started day two off with a victory over Eaton in the

110 metres hurdles The 110 metres hurdles, or 110-metre hurdles, is a hurdling track and field event for men. It is included in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympic Games. The female counterpart is the 100 metres hurdles. As part of a rac ...

, but it was only .02, narrowing the gap by 3 points. Rico Freimuth was the top

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 ...

er, with Hardee 85 cm behind him. Eaton's discus was 5.75 m less, giving Hardee almost an extra 120 point dent into the gap. Eaton more than gained that back with the third best

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a #bar, bar. Pole jumping was already practiced by the ...

of the day, while Hardee was 40 cm back. In the

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown as far as possible. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's de ...

, Leonel Suárez put more than 10 meters on the rest of the contenders, to solidly place himself in bronze medal position. Hardee was the third best thrower, but his gap was not as large as he needed while Eaton set a new personal best in the event. With Eaton holding a 150+ point lead, Hardee a 70-point lead over Suárez, who held an 80-point lead over a crowd of his nearest challengers, the medals were fairly well set before the gun in the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1500-metre run is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletics since 1983. It is equivalent to 1.5 kilomet ...

Hans van Alphen Hans Van Alphen (born 12 January 1982, in Turnhout) is a Belgium, Belgian decathlete. Van Alphen won the silver medal at the Athletics at the 2007 Summer Universiade, 2007 Summer Universiade and finished eleventh at the 2007 World Championships i ...

led the way to move into fourth place, but nobody made a serious run at improving their medals, instead choosing to just finish the last event. For Suárez, it was his second Olympic bronze medal in a row.

Competition format

The

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 ...

consists of ten

track and field 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 ...

events, with a points system that awards higher scores for better results in each of the ten components. The athletes all compete in one competition with no elimination rounds. At the end of competition, if two athletes are tied, the athlete who has received more points in the greater number of events is the winner.

Schedule

All times are

British Summer Time During British Summer Time (BST), civil time in the United Kingdom is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in effect changing the time zone from UTC+00:00 to UTC+01:00, so that mornings have one hour less daylight, and eve ...

(

UTC+1 +01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time * West Africa Time * Western European Summer Time **Brit ...

)

Records

, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

Overall results

;Key:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2012 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 ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Men's events at the 2012 Summer Olympics