Ashton Eaton joined a select group of decathletes on Sunday: He’s among the only four in the U.S. who have ever repeated as the Olympic Trials champion in the event. Eaton, 28, the world record-holder, won by 325 points, finishing the final event with 8,750.
Joining him on the team are Jeremy Taiwo, 26, and Zach Ziemek, 23, who finished second in the decathlon at the NCAA championships in June.
Eaton came into the trials with modest goals due to some injury issues. Winning wasn’t necessarily a given this time; he just wanted to place in the top three.
“If I’m in a situation in a decathlon I have confidence that I’ll know how to handle it because I’ve been in a lot of them,” Eaton said. “So I was just a little bit more confident in this one that if something went bad, like throwing 14 meters in shot put, that I’d be able to handle it, whereas in 2012 I wasn’t as confident.”
In celebration after the 1500 meters, their final event, the three Olympians took a dip in the steeplechase water pit, with the rest of the decathlon field.
But in the post-race press conference, they talked about serious issues. They covered the gamut of challenges facing the men’s event and the sport of track and field, including sponsorship restrictions, lack of financial support, and the fading popularity of decathlon, which at one time was popular even among mainstream observers. Taiwo said that most of those personal concerns faded the moment he made the team.
“I remembered all the times that I was like, ‘This is the hardest journey you ever had. This is the defining moment in your life at 26,’” he said. “You wanted to give up, you wanted to not go to practice, you wanted to just go work at Whole Foods or something because it hurts to be a decathlete. You’re like, ‘What are you doing? You don’t even get paid for this.’ So just all that was in my mind. I’m so grateful that I can pay for rent this coming month, so it was great.”
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Below is a preview of the decathlon, originally published in June. To see all of our event previews, go here.
World Record: Ashton Eaton (USA), 9,045 points (2015)
American Record: Ashton Eaton, 9,045 points (2015)
Olympic Trials Record: Ashton Eaton, 9035 points (2012)
nbsp;USA, 9,045 points 2015: 7,900 points
Olympic Qualifying Time: 8,100 points
Ashton Eaton, 9,045 points 2015: Ashton Eaton is back and something catastrophic would have to happen for him not to make the Olympic team. Trey Hardee, Jeremy Taiwo, Zach Ziemek, Devon Williams, and Garrett Scantling all have the Olympic standard and have declared their entries.
