Quotes & Sayings About Decathlon

And there is such a thing as a decathlon high. It's like a rock rolling down hill, picking up momentum. You get better and better. — Dan O'Brien

The most challenging aspect of the decathlon is not the events themselves, but how you train to become the best 100-meter runner you are on the same day that you're the best 1,500-meter runner. — Bruce Jenner

It took me time to realize that the men who won Olympic gold medals in the decathlon are just men, just like me. — Dan O'Brien

I didn't even know what it was when I started. But I was lucky. I found it at 16. Most people don't discover decathlon until they're 21 or 22. — Daley Thompson

The decathlon is nine Mickey Mouse events and the 1500 metres. — Steve Ovett

During the decathlon, I always think only of the next event and my personal record. — Roman Sebrle

It hurts every day when you practice hard, but when this decathlon is over, I got the rest of my life to recuperate. Who cares how bad it hurts? — Caitlyn Jenner

Speed is more important than endurance in the decathlon. — Caitlyn Jenner

David Epstein, the author of the best book on athletics in recent memory - "The Sports Gene" - wrote to me to say that he thinks I'm being overly generous. He points out that, for years, there used to be an "all-star challenge" on television, in which the best professional athletes from a variety of sports competed in a kind of makeshift decathlon. — Malcolm Gladwell

The great thing about this is, and not to pump my own tires, but I feel like I'm not maximized yet. I feel like I can still run faster, jump higher, which I think makes it special. Hopefully, going to London, I'll be welcomed into the decathlon community. — Ashton Eaton

Most people doing the decathlon these days are quite boring, so people don't relate to them. — Daley Thompson

When Olympic decathlon gold medalist Bruce Jenner asked a roomful of Olympic hopefuls if they had a list of written goals, every one raised their hands. When he asked how many of them had that list with them right that moment, only one person raised their hand. That person was Dan O'Brien. And it was Dan O'Brien who went on to win the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Don't underestimate the power of setting goals and constantly reviewing them. — Jack Canfield

When I lost my decathlon world record I took it like a man. I only cried for ten hours. — Daley Thompson

Sometimes you have to resist working on your strengths in favour of your weaknesses. The decathlon requires a wide range of skills. — Daley Thompson

The thing I like about decathlon is also the thing I dislike: It's the maximum challenge, but also the maximum frustration. — Ashton Eaton

In the two weeks following the All-Star Game, baseball was largely upstaged by the events of the XXI Olympiad in Montreal, including Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci's seven perfect 10.0 scores, Bruce Jenner's record-setting decathlon triumph, and the five gold medals won by U.S. boxers Howard Davis Jr., Sugar Ray Leonard, Leo Randolph, and brothers Leon and Michael Spinks - the mightiest performance of any American boxing team in Olympic history. — Dan Epstein

The decathlon takes so long to learn that people who are good athletes don't want to go back to the beginning again. — Daley Thompson

I'm competitive. I like to compete, and that's basically what the decathlon lets me do. — Bryan Clay

The whole decathlon is ridiculous, but the 1,500 meters is insanity. — Rafer Johnson

I called Daley Thompson after the Games of '84, when he won. He'd had this phenomenal decathlon for nine events - and then he went out there and jogged the 1,500 meters and missed the world record by, like, three points. — Caitlyn Jenner

The decathlon includes ten separate events and they all matter. You can't work on just one of them. — Dan O'Brien

He wrote arguments for and against life; he began to think the slowest and most painful form of suicide was living, running the whole decathlon of suffering, no breather or bottled water. Fear of dying was irrational. Death was utilitarian. Decrease in net resource consumption and planetary suffering. Increase in net comedy. There was no afterlife but there was a right-before-death, and medical research said it was loopy and nice, all white lights and gentle voices. With booze it wasn't even scary. Some people with terrible lives didn't kill themselves, but that didn't mean they shouldn't. Most people weren't alive and didn't mind. You couldn't regret it. — Tony Tulathimutte

I got interested in decathlon because a coach that I had was a big fan of Bruce Jenner, and he just saw the ability in me - but when it came down to it, I knew my best chance at a college scholarship would be in track and field. — Dan O'Brien

There's never going to be a decathlon that you're going to have 10 events that your satisfied with. You're always, always going to be dissatisfied in something, and that always draws you back to try to retry that the next time you do a decathlon. It's like you go for the perfect 10. — Ashton Eaton

Our department takes 1,120 calls every day. Do you know how many of the calls the public expects perfection on? 1,120. Nobody calls the fire department and says, 'Send me two dumb-ass firemen in a pickup truck.' In three minutes they want five brain-surgeon decathlon champions to come and solve all their problems. — John Eversole

When I was growing up, yearning with my pals to be a track star, one of our heroes was Bruce Jenner. He won a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics in the decathlon, and he adorned our Wheaties boxes. We all wanted to be Bruce Jenner. — Nicholas Kristof

I don't think anyone chooses the decathlon as much as it chooses you. — Bryan Clay

Before the decathlon I'm constantly trying to convince myself that I want to do this, that I want to take myself to that place where it's going to hurt and things are going to be tough. But that's like anything - you want to give your best. — Bryan Clay

If I were to compare the Olympic decathlon to fatherhood, I would say fatherhood is a lot tougher. — Caitlyn Jenner

To me, the decathlon is its own little society and I am part of that culture. — Dan O'Brien

If you're going to dedicate every second to winning the decathlon, what are you doing wasting your time in bed? — Caitlyn Jenner

There is a man who has won the decathlon of human existence."* — William F. Buckley Jr.

The only thing I did is, I wore the same pair of socks in every decathlon I was ever in. — Caitlyn Jenner

I could be winning the decathlon in high school, which I've won twice, yet, if my dad is in the audience, 'Oh look! It's Anthony Quinn.' And I'm like, 'Hello? Kid just got a gold medal. Hello? I'm over here.' — Francesco Quinn