Men's Decathlon

Contested outdoors over two days, the decathlon pairs raw speed and power with technical event craft and, by the end, plain endurance. Day one runs through the 100 metres, long jump, shot put, high jump and a lap of the track in the 400 metres; day two opens with the 110 metres hurdles and works through the discus, pole vault and javelin before the closing 1500 metres.

No single event wins a decathlon, but a weak one can lose it. The best scorers are rarely the fastest sprinter or the longest thrower in the field — they are the athletes with no obvious hole in their game, able to bank points everywhere and stay healthy across ten disciplines and two long days.

World records hover around 9000 points, a barrier first approached this century; a score in the 8200–8500 range is already international class, and 8000 points is the traditional mark of a complete senior decathlete.

World Athletics scores every mark with the same shape of formula. For a track event — where a faster time is better — the points are A × (B − T)^C, with T your time in seconds. For a field event — where farther or higher is better — they are A × (M − B)^C, with M your distance in metres. A, B and C are published constants tuned for each event; the result is rounded down to a whole number and never drops below zero.

Add the 10 event scores together and you have the total. The tables are progressive: the closer a mark gets to world-record level, the more each extra centimetre or hundredth of a second is worth — so a balanced athlete who scores well everywhere usually beats a specialist with one huge event and an obvious weak spot.