RIO DE JANEIRO — Ashton Eaton didn’t set the world record in the decathlon, as he had hoped at these Summer Games. Instead, he’ll go home to Oregon with a consolation prize shared by only two Olympians in history.
Eaton captured the gold medal, his second in a row in the discipline. In doing so, he joins the USA’s Bob Mathias (1948 and 1952) and Great Britain’s Daley Thompson (1980 and 1984) as the only two-time decathlon winners in Olympic history.
"To win two Olympic golds in a row like Daley Thompson is very special," Eaton said. "One day, I'm going to have to meet Daley, shake his hand and thank him for giving me something to chase after. My throwing has been bad In the past, but I really got after the discus and shot here. Can I do three in a row? Maybe you should ask Daley."
Eaton scored 8,893 points, tying the Olympic record set by Roman Seberle of the Czech Republic in 2004, finishing ahead of Kevin Mayer of France (8,834) and Damian Warner of Canada (8,666).
After the gold medal was secured, a weary Eaton shared a few moments with his wife, Brianne Thiesen-Eaton, who took bronze in the heptathlon competing for Canada.
The decathlon features a grind of 10 events capped by the 1,500 meters. Eaton finished in the top three in five events: the 100 meters, the long jump, the 400 meters, the pole vault and the 1,500.
Barring injury, there was very little doubt leading into the Rio Games that Eaton would end up in gold.
He has been the world’s top decathlete since 2012, when he captured gold at the London Games. Since then, he’s captured successive World Championships in the event and Friday’s gold; Eaton also won the heptathlon at the Indoor Championships in 2011, 2014 and this past March.
