Mobility Monday Episode 35: Ashton Eaton
As the world grows smaller and international competition becomes even more unifying, the sporting world is more certain when they crown their respective champions. Recently, CrossFit has attempted to probe the world's population to find the fittest man and woman on the planet. For years, the decathlon, a combination of 10 track and field events held over two days challenged the most well-rounded athletes in running, jumping and throwing. Although decathletes may not be setting record times or distances in individual events, their performances are nevertheless impressive, considering the breadth of skill (pole vault), strength (shot put), speed (100m sprint) and endurance (1500m) that they compete in.
Recently, Ashton Eaton broke his own world record at the 2015 track and field world championships in Beijing. The points in the decathlon are predetermined for various times or distances. Ashton Eaton accumulated 9045 points. To make better sense of this, here's the breakdown of his event results, taken from SI's Performance Report:
100-meter dash: 10.23 seconds, 1st (decathlon world-championship record)—1040 points
Long jump: 7.88 meters, 1st—1030 points
Shot put: 14.52 meters, 9th—760 points
High jump: 2.01 meters, 11th—813 points
400-meter run: 45.00 seconds, 1st (decathlon world record)—1060 points
110-meter hurdles: 13.69 seconds, 2nd—1015 points
Discus throw: 43.43 meters, 11th—733 points
Pole vault: 5.20 meters, 5th place—972 points
Javelin throw: 63.63 meters, 4th place—793 points
1,500-meter run: 4:17.52, 2nd place—829 points
As you can see, Ashton is a very good sprinter. However, in decathlon, it takes a lot more than fast sprinting to claim the world record. If I were to pick a team for the Hunger Games, I would undoubtedly have him as first pick. See the video below in case you missed the world championships.
