Dates July 13–15 | Competitors 29 from 12 nations | |
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Venue Stockholm Olympic Stadium | ||
The men's decathlon was a track and field athletics event held as part of the athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme. The competition was held from Saturday, July 13, 1912, to Monday, July 15, 1912. It was the first time the decathlon, which had been introduced in 1911, was held at the Olympics; a different ten-event competition, the all-around, had been contested in St. Louis in 1904.
Contents
Twenty-nine decathletes from twelve nations competed.
Results
Thorpe's gold medal was stripped by the International Olympic Committee in 1913, after the IOC learned that Thorpe had played professional baseball, violating Olympic amateurism rules, before the 1912 Games. This moved everyone else up in the rankings. In 1982, the IOC was convinced that the disqualification had been improper, as no protest against Thorpe's eligibility had been brought within the required 30 days, and reinstated Thorpe's medals. Wieslander, Lomberg, and Holmér, however, were declared to still be gold, silver, and bronze medalists, respectively. This made Thorpe and Wieslander co-champions.
Avery Brundage, president of the IOC from 1952 to 1972, competed in the decathlon finishing in 16th place. Brundage did not start in the last two events of the competition.
High jump
6 of the 29 starters did not appear for the fourth event.
400 metres
5 more athletes, including the 6th-placed Nilsson, retired after the high jump and did not appear for the fifth event. This brought the number of non-finishers up to 11, leaving 18 to continue the competition.
Discus throw
Philbrook scored over 1000 points in the event by breaking the previous Olympic record (listed as 41.46 metres in the 1912 official report, though actually only 40.89 set by Martin Sheridan in 1908). Since the discus throw event had been held 2 days prior to the decathlon and Armas Taipale had far exceeded the old record, Philbrook's mark was not a new record. It did vault him from 5th place to 2nd following the 6th event, however.
Pole vault
Two more athletes dropped out, leaving 16 left out of the original 29.
Javelin throw
Only 14 athletes, fewer than half of the original 29, began the penultimate event.
1500 metres
Only 12 of the 29 starters finished the entire decathlon. Thorpe's disqualification in 1913 and subsequent reinstatement 70 years later resulted in the top 4 finishers being awarded medals—2 gold, a silver, and a bronze.