Imagine if the world’s five greatest all-round athletes in history lined up against each other in top form and competed in a decathlon.
It would never happen, of course, because four of those decathletes are now retired. But it’s interesting to take their PB scores – all of which were world records at the time – and see how they compare, event by event.
It’s a lot close than you might think.
Ashton Eaton comes out on top overall, of course. But, unlike in Beijing where he led from start to finish, here in this virtual competition, he only leads at three points during the competition, each time after track events. He goes as low as fifth after the shot put and high jump and is still only in fourth place after nine events before pulling it all back in the 1500m.
Dan O’Brien has the lion’s share of the lead, sitting in pole position following six of the 10 events. But he finally slips out of the top two after the javelin and, as the slowest 1500m runner of the quintet, moves down to fourth by the end of the contest.
Czech duo Roman Sebrle Tomas Dvorak go through similar peaks and troughs. Their biggest dip comes after the 400m, but they excel in the throws – and the javelin in particular – giving them both a top-three finish.
Like Eaton, Daley Thompson’s best events are on the track. But after spending most of day one in the top three, he slips to fifth after the 110m hurdles and remains in that position.
Obviously these guys were capable of better marks than some of the ones they achieved within their world record series. And of course, had they all faced each other when they were each at their best, then the outcome may have been quite different to this. But this is purely a comparison of their world record performances.
Broken down into individual events, the competition plays out like…
100m
1 Ashton Eaton 10.23
2 Dan O’Brien 10.43
3 Daley Thompson 10.44
4 Tomas Dvorak 10.54
5 Roman Sebrle 10.64
After one event:
1 Eaton 1040
2 O’Brien 992
3 Thompson 989
4 Dvorak 966
5 Sebrle 942
Long jump
1 Roman Sebrle 8.11m
2 Dan O’Brien 8.08m
3 Daley Thompson 8.01m
4 Tomas Dvorak 7.90m
5 Ashton Eaton 7.88m
After two events:
1 O’Brien 2073
2 Eaton 2070
3 Thompson 2052
4 Sebrle 2031
5 Dvorak 2001
Shot put
1 Tomas Dvorak 16.78m
2 Dan O’Brien 16.69m
3 Daley Thompson 15.72m
4 Roman Sebrle 15.33m
5 Ashton Eaton 14.52m
After three events:
1 O’Brien 2967
2 Dvorak 2900
3 Thompson 2886
4 Sebrle 2841
5 Eaton 2830
High jump
1 Roman Sebrle 2.12m
2 Dan O’Brien 2.07m
3 Tomas Dvorak 2.04m
4 Daley Thompson 2.03m
5 Ashton Eaton 2.01m
After four events:
1 O’Brien 3835
2 Sebrle 3756
3 Dvorak 3740
4 Thompson 3717
5 Eaton 3643
400m
1 Ashton Eaton 45.00
2 Daley Thompson 46.97
3 Roman Sebrle 47.79
4 Tomas Dvorak 48.08
5 Dan O’Brien 48.51
After five events:
1 O’Brien 4720
2 Eaton 4703
3 Thompson 4677
4 Sebrle 4675
5 Dvorak 4645
110m hurdles
1 Ashton Eaton 13.69
2 Tomas Dvorak 13.73
3 Roman Sebrle 13.92
4 Dan O’Brien 13.98
5 Daley Thompson 14.33
After six events:
1 Eaton 5718
2 O’Brien 5697
3 Sebrle 5660
4 Dvorak 5655
5 Thompson 5609
Discus
1 Dan O’Brien 48.56m
2 Tomas Dvorak 48.33m
3 Roman Sebrle 47.92m
4 Daley Thompson 46.56m
5 Ashton Eaton 43.34m
After seven events:
1 O’Brien 6537
2 Dvorak 6491
3 Sebrle 6487
4 Eaton 6451
5 Thompson 6408
Pole vault
1 Ashton Eaton 5.20m
2 Daley Thompson 5.00m
2 Dan O’Brien 5.00m
4 Tomas Dvorak 4.90m
5 Roman Sebrle 4.80m
After eight events:
1 O’Brien 7447
2 Eaton 7423
3 Dvorak 7371
4 Sebrle 7336
5 Thompson 7318
Javelin
1 Tomas Dvorak 72.32m
2 Roman Sebrle 70.16m
3 Daley Thompson 65.24m
4 Ashton Eaton 63.63m
5 Dan O’Brien 62.58m
After nine events:
1 Dvorak 8296
2 Sebrle 8228
3 O’Brien 8224
4 Eaton 8216
5 Thompson 8135
1500m
1 Ashton Eaton 4:17.52
2 Roman Sebrle 4:21.98
3 Daley Thompson 4:35.00
4 Tomas Dvorak 4:37.20
5 Dan O’Brien 4:42.10
Final scores:
1 Eaton 9045
2 Sebrle 9026
3 Dvorak 8994
4 O’Brien 8891
5 Thompson 8847