The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten disciplines, mixing track and

field events. The winner is considered by many as the worlds finest athlete because he is supposed
to be complete, showing different and complimentary skills to thrive outperforming results.
Additionally, from the olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger) and grouping
sports according to required abilities, we can classify the different disciplines into 3 different main
categories:
1. Running events: 100m, 400m, 110m hurdles, 1500m.
2. Throwing events: shot put, discus throw, javelin throw.
3. Jumping events: long jump, pole vault, high jump.
What is the key point to win a decathlon? Does an athlete has to be good in certain events
only or has to be a complete one? Looking at the raw performance numbers, the event which is best
correlated with the total number of points is long jump, in other words: the longer the jump, the
higher the total number of points. Nonetheless, decathlon is not about just one event,but a
combination of different skills nicelly combined to win the competition.
As a consequence, a comparison between performances in all 10 disciplines can provide
richier information to identify the top competitors. However, while some sports are measured by time
units (seconds or minutes), others are recorded in lenght units (meters). To make performances
comparable, a standardization is applied to each sport, where all athletes have a score that measures
how far (above or below) each one is from the calculated average performance for that specific
discipline (Zscore), and finally, results in different sports are comparable.
Even though one big step towards a solid conclusion has been taken, another statistical
problem has to be fixed: How to consolidate the influence of each discipline in a certain factor that
summarizes a set of skills?. A second crucial process takes place then, and it is called factor
analysis, which reduces the dependence of the final rank from 10 variables (number of Zscores) to a
few explanatory ones (factors). Accordingly, the initial factors found by the analysis were 4. Then,
either due to absence of clear pattern (factor 2) or little relevance to the final score (if compared to
others, factor 3), the factors chosen for this analysis were sprint and accurate muscle explosion
(AME).
From the factor analysis made, it seems that in order to perform well in Decathlon, the keysuccess is to sprint accurately (speed plus technique). It would also help athletes to perform better in
jumping events such as long jump, high jump and pole vault. Therefore, can we infer that good
sprinters are always going to win the competition as they are able to outperform in 6 events ?
If it were to be always true, decathletes would only have to focus on improving their speed and
polish their jumping techniques in order to win the competition, while they only would need to train a
little in the other events. Moreover, going through a deeper analysis, we have noticed that sprinting is
not the exclusive factor that determines the final rank. Eventually, a competitor with worse sprinting
performance can surpass his opponents final position due to the fourth factor defined as accurate
muscle explosion, and the most important sport for the definition of this fourth factor is shot put.
This fact explains why some athletes, despite non-outstanding sprinting results, still end up above

better sprinters in the final classification. Hence, performing better in other events such as shot put,
discus throw and javelin throw, which require important skills, can still be decisive for the run for the
ultimate title.
That being said, an excellent sprinter has good chances, but is not guaranteed to win the
competition. It has been also shown that being technical without a certain speed wont lead you to
victory neither. And finally, the combination of both factors 1 and 4, results in a double-axis graph
(sprinters vs. accurate muscle explosion) that scatters athletes by their respective performances in
regards these two factors.
Concluding, a decathlon coach, should emphasize training sessions on speed and muscle
explosion (specially shot put) in order to have the most competitive athletes and, therefore, to
increase chances of winning a medal in Rio 2016 Olympic Games. What does emphasize the
training on speed and technique concretely mean?. It means that the program has to be set to make
the athletes to run as fast as they can in order to primarily achieve excellent results in running events
and, secondarily, use this speed to have better performance in jumping events, indeed they are
speed and technique demmanding as well.
As dedicated training programs, based on each relation between sprint and AME, 4 modules
are suggested:

Winners : balanced training with special focus on sprinting.

Slow potentials: ability to sustain muscular contaction over a period of

time (sustained aerobic work).

Unrefined potentials : NEUROMUSCULAR (Technique) - The

coordination of specific movements into a motor pattern to enhance the body's ability to
efficiently apply force.

Cautionary Potentials: Q2 + Q4 under probation to measure

improvements and performance
Lastly the selection of the athletes plays a main role in the process of building a champion,
since not every human-being has the minimum requirements to become a decathlon superstar.
Potential outperformers are generally blessed with both genetics and a broad skill set. Ashton Eaton,
for instance, who holds the world record in Decathlon, was born from two athletics parents, his father
was an American football player and his mother was an athlete and a dancer. Furthermore, a
decathlete needs to have certain physical attributes such as height - the first 10 decathletes in
London were taller than 1.80m. Summarizing, a tall, fast and technical athlete, is the optimal
combination to perform well or win the event.
If there are no such kind of sportsperson in a specific country, athlete who run fast as sprint
track athlete, may have an advantage in the decathlon since they have an important chance of
performing better in more events than field athletes.