The Women's Decathlon

Now that the women's 50 kilometer walk is a part of the World Championships, men and women compete in basically identical programs in track & field.  There are 24 men's events, 24 women's events and a mixed 4x400 meter relay (which was only added because the IOC added it to the Olympics, even though the IAAF didn't really want to).  The only real difference is that the men contest the 10-event decathlon, while the women's equivalent, the heptathlon, is only seven events.

In recent years, though, there have been attempts to change that with the creation of the women's decathlon.  The IAAF ratified it as an official event in 2005, and this weekend, one weekend after the USATF Outdoor Championships, they're holding the inaugural Women's Open Decathlon Championship in California.  Fourteen women are signed up for modest prize money ($500/$200/$100) in the first USATF-sanctioned women's decathlon.

There's been mixed reaction to the event.  Flotrack is all about it, while the British newspaper The Guardian is a little more skeptical.  Their argument has nothing to do with whether or not women are capable of doing 10 events.  They absolutely can.  It's more because no one really seems to have a problem with the heptathlon, so why the push to change it to a decathlon?

While some of the distances in the running events are different and the field events are in a different order, the main difference between the heptathlon and decathlon is that the decathlon includes the pole vault, discus and 400 while the heptathlon doesn't.  Now, the women's pole vault, while it's become an incredibly popular event (Hi, Sandi), only really caught on in the early 2000s. 

So, it's only been since the women's pole vault became commonplace that the idea of a women's decathlon has gained traction.  Before that, most women didn't compete in the pole vault, so it was unrealistic for it to be included in the multi-event competition.  Same thing with the discus, but to a lesser degree, since the shot put has always been a part of the heptathlon and the training for those two throws is similar.

Some of the women's decathlon advocates view this championship as groundbreaking in much the same way the 2017 World Championships were groundbreaking for the inclusion of the women's 50 kilometer walk.  However, I'm not sure the women's decathlon is going to catch on in the same way the open women's pole vault has.

Elite heptathletes seem unwilling to transition to the decathlon, and I don't think it has anything to do with the pole vault.  Yes, the pole vault takes forever and requires arduous, specialized training.  But their concerns about the decathlon don't even seem to be rooted in the additional three events.  Rather, it's about the order of events.

The first day of the men's decathlon includes the 100, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400.  On the second day, they do the 110 hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1500.  For the women, the running events are the same.  But they reverse the order of the field events so that they could theoretically hold a men's and women's decathlon at the same time.

Meanwhile, the heptathlon starts with the hurdles before going to the high jump.  That's a very easy transition since those two events require roughly the same skill set.  (In fact, many heptathletes are world-class hurdlers or high jumpers, or both.)  Now you want them to go from the 100 to the highly-technical discus, then do the pole vault.  Those aren't just the two most technical events of the 10, they're also the two that aren't included in the heptathlon.

It's fair to say that the heptathlon favors the better athletes, but doesn't necessarily determine the best all-around athlete in the way the decathlon does.  The proof of this is that many former heptathletes have specialized and are excelling.  Dafne Schippers is a two-time world champion in the 200, Nadine Visser won a medal in the hurdles at World Indoors, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the greatest heptathlete ever, regularly medaled in both the heptathlon and long jump at the same meet.  You can't say the same about decathletes (although Ashton Eaton probably could've been an elite 400-runner if he wanted to be).

But that specialization has nothing to do with the resistance among heptathletes about moving up to the decathlon.  (It's also worth noting that indoors the men compete in the heptathlon and the women compete in the pentathlon, but there's no clamoring to change that.)  It's more because they don't see the need for it. 

No one has a problem with the heptathlon, and no one thinks it's sexist that the women only compete in seven events instead of 10.  And if you can't get the athletes to buy in, how do you expect the fans to?