Is Ashton Eaton the world's greatest young athlete?

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Jun 28, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Decathlete Ashton Eaton from the University of Oregon delights in his second-place finish at the U.S. track and field championships at Hayward Field.

JONATHAN FERREY / GETTY IMAGES

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EUGENE – In earlier eras – ones featuring the likes of Bill Toomey and Rafer Johnson and Bruce Jenner and Daley Thompson – the Olympic decathlon champion was known as the world’s greatest athlete.

You don’t hear that phrase associated with track and field’s multi-event discipline anymore.

Should we?

“It’s hard to say,” says Ashton Eaton, the University of Oregon junior who finished second in the decathlon at the U.S. Track & Field Championships at Hayward Field. “There are a lot of really great athletes who don’t do the decathlon. I would say (the decathlon champion) is the world’s most versatile athlete.”

But greatest athlete? Better than LeBron James or Kobe Bryant or Larry Fitzgerald or Alex Rodriguez?

“I think (the decathlete) is the greatest track and field athlete in the world,” says Frank Zarnowski, the nation’s foremost authority on the decathlon. “Right now, the best athlete in the world is a golfer named Woods. He can do things in a specific way others have not been able to do.

“But (the decathlon champion) is the world’s best all-around athlete, because there are multiple skills. If you throw in ‘all-around,’ there’s no doubt it’s the decathlon champion.”

Years ago, Zarnowski – public-address announcer for the decathlon at U.S. national and Olympic trials meets since 1972 – debated the issue with Thompson, a former world record-holder from England and the Olympic decathlon champion in 1980 and ‘84.

“Daley challenged the NFL to line up its best sprinter, thrower and jumper to compete against him one-on-one,” Zarnowski recalls. “The players union nixed it. He’d have kicked their ass. I don’t think the decathlon performer is appreciated as much as he ought to be.”

Even in track and field circles, the decathlon flies under the radar.

Eaton had never even heard of the two-day, 10-event competition until late in his career at Mountain View High.

“My coach, Tate Metcalf, told me what it was as I was getting recruited to colleges,” says Eaton, a state champion in the 400 meters and long jump and second in the 200 as a senior. “I was like, ‘Oh, that sounds cool.’ "

Most track meets don’t stage a decathlon, which features the runs (100, 400, high hurdles and 1,500), throws (shot put, discus and javelin) and jumps (high, long and pole vault) – five events a day for two days. Decathlons are generally held only in championship competitions and are among the most grueling of athletic endeavors.

Eaton’s first decathlon was at Arizona during his freshman year at Oregon. Little more than two years later, he is a two-time Pac-10 and NCAA champion and is ranked fifth in the world. Eaton will represent the U.S. at the World Championships at Berlin in August.

And he is only 21, competing on a world stage in a discipline that takes many years to master.

“I’m still a baby,” Eaton says, adding with a laugh, “I feel like I know a lot about the decathlon, but Dan (Steele, the UO multi-event coach) reminds me every day I don’t know a thing about it.”

The 6-1, 190-pound Eaton is learning quickly, though. With defending Olympic champion Bryan Clay watching from the grandstands with a strained hamstring, former Texas standout Trey Hardee won the national title with a score of 8,261 points. Eaton was second at 8,075, and Jake Arnold, a former Pac-10 champion from Arizona, took third at 7,984.

Was Eaton disappointed to not win?

“Not really, not to a guy like Trey,” Eaton says. “You’re always trying to win, but this was one where we were just trying to qualify for the Worlds. It will be the biggest meet of my life.”

Pardon Eaton if was a bit worn out. It was his third decathlon in a month, following those at the Pac-10 and NCAA meets.

“I got the impression people here were disappointed Ashton didn’t win, but I think a bit too much is expected of him right now,” Zarnowski says. “He’s very young, a newcomer to this thing. All in all, it was a great performance. He has six straight 8,000-point performances. Nobody in history has done that at his age.”

Zarnowski, who has watched and known all of the great decathletes of the past 30 years, breaks down Eaton’s talents this way:

“Ashton has one-third of the event pretty much figured out. He is the best runner in the history of the decathlon. He has great potential in another third – the jumps. He just needs to iron out some little problems and get more consistent on approaches. The third piece is missing – the throws. He doesn’t have a feel for the throwing events yet.”

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