Ashton Eaton leads after Day 1 of decathlon

Medal count | Olympic schedule | Olympic news

You could make a good case that the winner of the 10-event Olympic decathlon is the world’s greatest athlete, and if that’s the case, Team USA’s Ashton Eaton is in the process of pushing aside Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, LeBron James and any other pretenders to the throne.

Eaton, the defending gold medalist in the decathlon, took the first step toward repeating his performance at this Olympics in Rio by taking charge of the first day of the decathlon. Eaton was strong in the speed events, placing first in the 400-meter run and second in the 100-meter run. He was also first in the long jump, and had strong performances in the shot put and high jump. He’s now in first place.

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Eaton is seeking to become the third man to repeat as decathlon champion, after Bob Mathias of the USA in 1948 and 1952 and Daley Thompson of Great Britain in 1980 and 1984.

Thursday’s events include the 110-meter hurdles, the discus throw, the pole vault, the javelin throw and the 1500-meter run. Eaton’s tip-slash-warning: Watch out for the pole vault. “It’s the event where you’re tired, it’s day two, the event is four hours long,” he said, “and sometimes people just don’t clear the height.”

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.