After two grueling days, former Duck Ashton Eaton finally claimed the gold medal in the decathlon Thursday evening. His teammate and fellow American Trey Hardee took the silver.
Eaton started with the 110-meter hurdles, where he easily took first place. This set up a cushion for later, when Eaton would be facing some of his weaker events, including the discus.
Eaton came in a discouraging last place in the second group of the discus, only able to throw 42.53 meters. It was here that Hardee suddenly looked poised to make a surge, as the once 200-point lead was severely cut to 91 points.
The pole vault gave Eaton the opportunity to take control again, with the Bend, Ore., native registering the third-best jump in his group before opting out of his last attempt in order to preserve energy. With 972 points making his total 7,381, Eaton was back in the lead by 221 points.
The javelin posed another problem for Eaton, as it was one of his weaker events, but he did not let it show. Instead, Eaton threw 61.96 meters, a new personal best that earned 767 points. By now his total points were at 8,148, and with one event left the gold medal seemed easily secured.
The 1,500 meter run was his last challenge, and similar to his standing at this year’s Olympic Trails, he was an easy run away from the gold medal and a new Olympic record. However, the race did not go as easily as planned, with Eaton easing up to cross the finish line in sixth place, with a time of 4:33:59. No Olympic record was achieved, but he still had the gold medal.
Realizing what he had achieved, he was able to celebrate and shared an emotional embrace with his tearful fiance, fellow Duck and heptathlete Brianne Theisen. It was then that he was able to take his first Olympic victory lap.
More than his solely own gold, Eaton was excited by the success of his teammate.
“The 1-2 finish was what we really, really wanted,” Eaton said in a press conference. “There has been a really good history with the U.S. decathletes. This is the 100th year anniversary, and Trey and I are just doing my best to carry it on.”
Eaton became one of a historic group of American decathletes, and the fourth Duck to win a gold medal at the Olympics. And he’s planning on doing even more in the future, even through the difficulty of his sport.
“It is hard for me because I understand I am young and it is hard to grasp, but the good thing is I’ll get older and I can look back on it,” Eaton said. “For me, I want ten perfect events. If I really felt like I was the world’s greatest athlete, I would get ten perfect events. I know that is near impossible, but that is the tough part of the decathlon.”