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Olympics Day 14: World’s Greatest Athlete

When did the decathlon lose its luster? As late as the 1980s, it was the second most important track & field event of the Olympics, next to the 100-meter dash. These days, though, it just seems like another event.

That's not fair, though. These guys go through hell for two days - 10 events that go from early morning to well after sunset on back-to-back days. This year, that included running the 100-meter dash in a driving rainstorm, then spending hours on the pole vault on a humid afternoon where temperatures hit almost 100 degrees.

So let's give some credit to Bryan Clay. On Thursday, in the rain, he ran the 100 meters in 10.44 seconds, long jumped 25'6", threw the shot put 53'4", high jumped 6'6", then ran 400 meters in 48.92 seconds.

None of those would be gold-medal winning performances on their own, but he had to be able to do well at all five on the same day. And, then, after four hours of sleep, he had to get ready for the hard half of the event.

He started with a 13.93 in the 110-meter hurdles, an event that has tripped up many people who specialize in it. He followed that up with 176'6" in the discus - the best throw by a decathlete in Olympic history.

Then came the event that can destroy a medal chance in a heartbeat - the pole vault. Remember the "Dan and Dave" Reebok ads in 1988 that were ruined when Dan O'Brien missed all of his jumps and was eliminated? It happened in Beijing, too. American Trey Hardee, who has gone over 17 feet in the pole vault, missed three times at his first height - 15'5". That dropped him from 4th place to out of the competition.

Clay made that height on his first try, and eventually cleared 16'5" to give himself a commanding lead. After a javelin throw of 232'10", all he had to do was finish the 1500-meter run in less than 5:30 to win the gold medal. Considering he has run it as fast as 4:38, that wasn't likely to be a problem.

After two hot, wet days of exertion, he didn't come close to 4:38, but he didn't come close to 5:30, either. Keeping a close watch on the clock, he ran a safe 5:06, winning the gold medal with a score of 8,791 points. That was actually 29 points fewer than he scored while winning silver in Athens, but in the brutal Beijing conditions, it was 240 points more than silver medalist Andrei Krauchanka.

Clay's effort provided a marked contrast to the silliness of the 4x100 relay races. Several teams, including both the American men and women, had dropped the baton in the semifinals, so it looked like Jamaica would cruise to easy victories in both finals. Except that the Jamaican women promptly dropped the baton in the final, allowing Russia to win and Belgium to finish second - the first track & field medal by any Belgian women ever.

With the US out of the men's race, the baton was certainly the only thing that could be Jamaica. They were so deep that they didn't even use Usain Bolt on the anchor leg - he ran third, with former world-record holder Asafa Powell going last. They didn't drop the baton and they destroyed the world record, running 37.10 when the old record was 37.40. They won the race by almost a full second - the biggest victory margin since 1936.

So Usain Bolt finishes with three golds and three world records - probably. The Jamaicans could draft him onto the 4x400 relay team tonight, even though he doesn't normally run that event.

And somewhere, Michael Phelps is very glad they don't use batons in swimming.

Away from the Bird's Nest, it was a big day in kayaking and canoeing for Belarus and Germany. Both countries won a pair of gold medals in the flatwater events, jumping them up the medal table. China had a bad day, but a sweep of women's table tennis ended any last Russian hopes of a rush for second place overall.

RealSports Medal Standings
1) United States 29-28-31=260
2) China 27-17-17=203
3) Russia 17-14-16=143
4) Great Britain 17-13-8=132
5) Australia 11-12-16=107
6) Germany 11-6-10=83
7) France 5-12-13=74
South Korea 8-9-5=72
9) Japan 9-4-9=66
10) Italy 7-7-9=65
11) Holland 6-4-4=46
12) Ukraine 5-4-6=43
X) MichaelPhelpsLand 8-0-0=40
13) Jamaica 6-2-2=38
14) Belarus 4-3-8=37
15) Cuba 2-6-7=35
16) Spain 4-4-2=34
17) Canada 3-3-6=30
18) Brazil 2-3-6=25
19) Czech Republic 3-3-0=24
20) Kenya 2-4-2=24