A few days before the beginning of the Games, together with my friends of Décapassion, Frédéric and Pierre Gousset, we made predictions concerning the 8 finalists of the decathlon. (Come to think of this, why didn't we do the same thing for the heptathlon?). And the order for the medalists was Neugebauer, Owens-Delerme, Warner for the Gousset, while I predicted silver for Warner and bronze for Delerme. The absence of the 2022 and 2023 world champions, K. Mayer and P. LePage, both injured, made the situation simpler. At least that's what we thought. It turned out that we couldn't have made a worse prediction. But, to tell the truth, things did not start badly. After the first day, our predictions were looking fine. Skotheim was in third place thanks to the jumps, while Warner was in fourth, precisely having underperformed in them. Gletty was slightly below our predictions but one would expect some improvement over the second day. (And, anyhow, our including him in the finalists was perhaps motivated by sentiment rather than by an objective assessment).
I was somewhat worried about Delerme. He gave me an overall impression of heaviness. He had stormed to a 45.07 s 400 m in Eugene two years ago. But in Paris he had to fight his way to a 46.17 s. I don't have any details concerning his current weight but I am convinced that he is heavier than in Eugene. He did improve his personal best in the shot put by a metre but, unfortunately, without improvement in the other two throws.
But I am getting ahead of myself. So, let's get back to the timeline.
The second day started as expected, with Warner dominating the hurdles. (Neugebauer, given his 2 m stature, is not at ease in this event, having to shorten his steps between the hurdles). Then came the discus and that was the tipping point of the competition. Neugebauer started with a decent, for him, throw of 53.33 m but could not improve it in the two remaining attempts. He bungled completely the last one with a throw at 40 m. (Had he thrown 56 m he would have won the event). His coach was seen on tv shouting "ah f**k!" because he understood that the title could be lost. (The funny thing is that while the expletive was not heard on the air, the BBC commentator had to apologise adding "hopefully no lip readers viewing today").
But the real disaster arrived at the next event. Jumping in group A, Warner and Ureña fouled out in the pole vault. Warner started at 4.60 m, a tad high given his 4.90 m personal best. (Unfortunately, given the hour, there was no live tv coverage in Greece and I could not see his attempts). This was a golden opportunity for S. Skotheim who, at that point of the competition, was third, behind Neugebauer and Warner. And then group B started jumping and Skotheim no-heighted at 4.50 m. Now, Skotheim has a personal best of 5.35 m from 2023 and has jumped 5.11 m this winter. However, in the Europeans he jumped only 4.60 m and needed three attempts at the initial height of 4.40 m. Does he have an injury that makes itself felt particularly in the pole vault? Anyhow, Skotheim was out of the race for the medals after the eighth event. Neugebauer jumped 5 m but Rooth added 20 cm to his personal best with 5.30 m. The former was still first at that point but given his, at best, mediocre javelin throw that was not going to last. And indeed, Rooth, with another personal in the javelin, took command of the event. The 1500 m was a mere formality and, with 8796 points Rooth was olympic champion, Neugebauer getting silver with 8748. It is remarkable that both Ureña and Skotheim who had fouled out in the pole vault, pursued their efforts in the remaining events, finishing the decathlon. L. Victor, was consistent throughout and, with 8711 points, was rewarded with the bronze medal.
A minor surprise was the fourth place of S. Roosen (an ex-low-hurdler). He is a complete decathlete and when he improves his vertical jumps he will be a real menace. An unpleasant surprise was the 9th place of Owens-Delerme. He hasn't improved in the throws and what I cannot understand is how somebody who ran 4:13.02 in 2022 in the 1500 m could only do 4:40.39 in Paris. (And this is not an isolated bad performance due to the fact that he was out of contention for the medals. He ran in 4:45.59 during his 8732 points decathlon in April). Concerning Neugebauer, I think that he learned a precious lesson. If he wishes to be number one in the world he must be more consistent in his throws and improve substantially his javelin. When he manages this, the world record will be within his reach.
In my report on the Europeans I had written that, with her performance in the heptathlon, Thiam was sending a clear message to all contenders that she was going to Paris in order to win a third olympic title. And win she did, but that was not as easy as I would have thought. Two things almost jeopardized her victory: the fact that she missed her tries at 1.95 (that she had easily jumped in Rome) and the great shape of K. Jonhson-Thompson, who surpassed herself in most events. At the end of the first day, Thiam was second at 48 points behind KJT. As luck would have it, they jumped 6.41 and 6.40 m in the long jump which means that entering the javelin throw, KJT had still 45 points of advance. And she threw very close to her personal best. But Thiam gave proof of her superiority throwing almost 10 m more than her adversary for a 121-point lead.
Under normal circumstances, Thiam would have lost the title then and there, since 121 points correspond to roughly 8 seconds of difference in the 800 m. But Thiam has specially prepared for the 800 m this year and had already improved her personal best in Rome. She improved it again in Paris, with 2:10.62 and the fact that KJT ran a pb of 2:04.90 did not matter: she was still 36 points behind. Thiam, with 6880 points, won her third olympic title in three Olympiads, becoming a member of a very select club that comprises, apart from her, only A. Wlodarczyk and F. Kipyegon.
N. Vidts won her first outdoor medal in a major competition: she was third with 6707 points. I was disappointed by A. Hall. With 6615 points (just one more than at the US Trials) she was fifth. I don't understand what is happening with her. Last year she was injured and, still, she managed to clinch the silver medal. This year was the year she was supposed to shine. But she didn't.
Tokyo bronze medalist E. Oostewegel could do not better than 8th, due in part to her below-par jumps. Of the two "new" athletes I am following, S. Dokter had a great competition finishing 6th with 6452 points. On the other hand the heptathlon of A. Lazraq-Khlass was a pure disaster. She finished 16th with 6110 points, to be compared to her 6635 obtained in Rome. Had she repeated that score she would have been very close to the medals. But I still believe that she has great talent and can do something nice in the future. In particular, since she is a spinner in the shot put, it would not be difficult for her to learn the discus, and then there is just one more step to the decathlon.
A. Sulek gave birth to her son in February and was present in Paris, finishing a quite respectable 12th, another confirmation (as if we needed one) that moms can do great in athletics.
All in all, both combined events competitions were great. I just hope that next year in Tokyo we have something comparable.
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