The Decathlon

The decathlon is an athletic event in which a series of 10 games are played. Decathlon derived its word from a Greek word called athlos which means contest. In decathlon, the sporting events are held over 2 days. In each day, 5 events are held.

The winner is determined through a point system. In each event, the winner will be rewarded with points through the preset scoring table. The player does not need to be a champion in all the events in order to in the decathlon game. The player simply needs to accumulate much points from all the events. He who has the most points will earn the gold medal in the Olympics game.

Men are the only participants in the decathlon. A woman takes parts in the heptathlon.  Though decathlon is participated by men, women sometimes take part in it too. In the heptathlon, women will compete with 7 sport events.

Pentathlon is responsible for the development of the decathlon. Pentathlon competitions are involved in the ancient Greek Olympics. Pentathlon was known to the people in the 708 B.C.  Later, it was played as part of the celebration to the Roman religious festivity. Gorgos and Spartan are the most prominent players of the pentathlon game.

During the mid 1700s, the 1948 Olympics made some modification to the game. Bob Mathias became the first winner of the decathlon game. Bob Mathias was 17 years old at that time, which remove the belief that decathlon is for old people. Mathias is the youngest person who wins the decathlon until this day. Sebrle from Czech Republic is the first man to achieve 9026 points in the 2001 Olympic event. His friend, Dvorak who compete in the decathlon events with him score 8994 points. Sebrle is in the first position while Dvorak is in the third position in the 2001 Olympic event.