Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's decathlon

The Men's decathlon competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, was held at the Olympic Stadium on 8–9 August.[1]

Men's decathlon at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Date	8–9 August
Competitors	31 from 25 nations
Winning points	8869
Medalists
Ashton Eaton  United States Trey Hardee  United States Leonel Suárez  Cuba

Official Video Javelin and 1500 Highlights, Interviews
100 metres
Day 1 Highlights
High Jump and 400m Highlights
400 metres
110m Hurdles
full 1500m

Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Qualification
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
5000 m	men	women
10,000 m	men	women
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men	women
3000 m steeplechase	men	women
4×100 m relay	men	women
4×400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men	women
20 km walk	men	women
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men	women
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men	women
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men	women
Combined events
Heptathlon		women
Decathlon	men

From the outset, new world record holder Ashton Eaton dominated the events with teammate Trey Hardee his closest competitor. Notable for his early exit, 2004 champion and former world record holder Roman Šebrle withdrew after finishing last in the 100 m. Eaton's 10.35 100 metres was the top time of the day, Hardee's 10.42 the next best. His 8.03 long jump was almost half a metre further than any other competitor. Dmitriy Karpov won the shot put, but Eaton's 14.66 was just 12 cm short of his personal record. Leonel Suárez won the high jump, but Eaton tied with several members of the field for second best. And Eaton's 46.90 400 metres was over a full second faster than anybody else in the field. Damian Warner had a 40-point advantage for third position after the first day.

Hardee started day two off with a victory over Eaton in the 110 metres hurdles, but it was only .02, narrowing the gap by 3 points. Rico Freimuth was the top discus thrower, with Hardee 85 cm behind him. Eaton's discus was 5.75 m less, giving Hardee almost an extra 120 point dent into the gap. Eaton more than gained that back with the third best pole vault of the day, while Hardee was 40 cm back. In the javelin throw, Leonel Suárez put more than 10 meters on the rest of the contenders, to solidly place himself in bronze medal position. Hardee was the third best thrower, but his gap was not as large as he needed while Eaton set a new personal best in the event. With Eaton holding a 150+ point lead, Hardee a 70-point lead over Suárez, who held an 80-point lead over a crowd of his nearest challengers, the medals were fairly well set before the gun in the 1500 metres. Hans van Alphen led the way to move into fourth place, but nobody made a serious run at improving their medals, instead choosing to just finish the last event. For Suárez, it was his second Olympic bronze medal in a row.