Women's decathlon is not dead

Whether you have been following this blog from the outset or you have recently joined you have certainly noticed that I am a great fan of women's decathlon. I am rooting for a perfect parity between women's and men's events and looking at the baby height of women's high hurdles is raising my hackles. But the biggest injustice towards women is the absence of decathlon from the official championship program.

In a recent article I formulated some hope, based on the efforts of Jordan Gray to keep this discipline alive. The epidemic that perturbed all sports worldwide did slow down her efforts and thus there hasn't been a 2022 edition of women's decathlon. However in 2023 the competition is back and you can be assured that I will follow it closely and report here.

Had the competition in the US been the only one, my optimism for the women's decathlon would have been mitigated. But things are starting to move. In June will be held the combined events meeting organised by (multiple European combined events champion) Nana Djimou. There was a women's decathlon included in the very first edition of this competition, (alas, with a single participant). This year 6 to 8 places are reserved for female decathletes.

But that is not all. The french athletics federation decided to organise an official women's decathlon event in July. It will be held roughly a month after the national championships of combined events. There are two conditions for participation. A participant must have already completed a heptathlon and, what is more important, be able to jump 2.50 m at the pole vault (the first height during the competition being 2.30 m). Those are quite reasonable conditions making sure that only serious participants will enter the event. And if the event, which is qualified as "Open de France" is successful, it can lead to a national championship which can serve as a springboard for an international recognition of the event.

It is also made clear in the announcement that the order of the events will be the "normal" one. I have always considered the unnatural order proposed for the field events in women's decathlon as a subtle move aiming at discouraging the pioneers of the discipline. The fallacious, and dishonest, argument is that it is not possible to organise in parallel the men's and women's field events. Of course this is ridiculous. Most modern stadia have two jumping areas for vertical jumps, the only event where a possible bottleneck could exist. And the best proof that there are no logistic problems in running a women's decathlon alongside that of men's is offered by the recent Bryan Clay invitational where there were three decathlons running in parallel (with pole vault performances ranging for 2.80 to 5.20 m). 

So, let us cross our fingers and hope that this year's female decathlon competitions will mark the beginning of the emancipation of the discipline.