A glimmer of hope for women's decathlon

The followers of this blog know that I am a great fan of combined events and in particular of women's decathlon. The latter was officially introduced in 2004 and the first world record was that of M. Collonvillé with 8150 points. (The IAAF/WA always making life hard for women, had permuted the field events between the first and second day, something totally illogical from a technical point of view). And after its official introduction the women's decathlon was left to die, since it never became part of major competitions. Had the international federation been sincere in their support of the new discipline, they would have organised an annual cup, which would have allowed the emergence of real female decathletes. But nothing happened and almost 20 years later only a handful of female decathlon practitioners do exist.

If the decathlon manages to become one day the combined event for women, establishing, at long last, parity between men and women in athletics, that would be due to the incessant efforts of Jordan Gray. She has been, for several years now, promoting this discipline for women. She has launched the campaign "Let Women Decathlon". She is the current US decathlon record holder and with 8246 points she is second in the all time list, at 112 points from the world record of A. Skuyte. 

Still Gray's initiative was up to now an isolated one. However a recent decision of the Decastar organisers is bringing some hope. Next year's organisation will include a women's decathlon, open to 8 selected athletes. The decathlon competition will have the status of an "exhibition" but, still, it will be an excellent occasion for women to show that they can perform very well in this demanding event. After all, women have been competing for decades now in all the disciplines of the decathlon. M. Collonvillé will be the official patron of the event. And one can dream of a world record established on that occasion. J. Gray obtained 8246 points after having trained specifically for the discus, where she threw 40.98 m, and the pole vault, jumping 3.91 m. But her heptathlon personal best is a mere 5903 points. One can wonder what a 6500+ competitor can do in the heptathlon with a specific preparation on these two technical disciplines. In my 2014 article on women's decathlon I did a fast calculation on the possible total for C. Klüft, who had had some experience in pole vault and discus throw, and estimated that she could obtain a 9000+ score. And while not many athletes have the talent of Klüft, a 8500-8700 score does not look as out-of-this-world.

So let's wait for 2023 Decastar. It would be a great rendez-vous for women's decathlon.