Now that’s what you’d call a perfect 10! Ashton Eaton blew past the rest of the competition at Rio 2016 to win the decathlon gold medal on Aug. 19. It’s his back to back Olympic gold after also winning the event in London, proving he’s the ‘World’s Greatest Athlete’ that the decathlon winner is known as.
Most Olympic athletes are good at one sport, but for Ashton Eaton, 28, he had to dominate at ten different events! The men’s decathlon consists of 100m run, long jump, shot put, high jump, a 400m race, a 110m hurdles competition, discus throw, a pole vault, a javelin throw and finally, a 1500m race. At the end of the competition on Aug. 18, it was Ashton who stood above them all! He sealed the deal with an easy victory in the 1500m and after his success in the previous nine events, he was declared the decathlon champ with a new Olympic record of 8893 points!
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Ever since Jim Thorpe won the decathlon in 1912, the winner of the event has been dubbed the “world’s greatest athlete.” Many expected U.S.A.’s Ashton, the gold medal winner of the London 2012 games —and world record holder in the event — to go back-to-back and take the top prize at Rio 2016, which he cruised to. Now the only question is will be make it a three-peat and compete in the Tokyo 2020 games.
His biggest rival came from American’s neighbor to the north, as Canadian Damian Warner, 26, setting an Olympic best of 10.3 seconds at the 100m, per Reuters. Ashton answered Damian’s first shot with an amazing long jump, landing at 7.94m (where Damian came in at 7.67m.)
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Despite this rivalry with a Canuck, Ashton gave love to the Great White North. He was seen on Aug. 12, wearing a CANADA hat while at the Olympics. While some people were heartbroken to see Ashton supposedly change sides, per The Washington Post, he actually had a good reason. His wife, Brianne Theisen-Eaton, 27, is Canadian and he was cheering her on. It must have worked because she took home the bronze in the women’s heptathlon!
Are you glad with the winner of this event, HollywoodLifers? Are you happy Ashton took home the gold medal? Are you looking forward to Tokyo 2020?
