Dmitri Karpov won an Olympic bronze medal at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004. He is the Kazakhstan decathlon record holder. Winner of the 2006 IAAF Combined Events Challenge.
At the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka, Roman Šebrle captured the decathlon title with 8676 points, completing his long pursuit after two World Championships silver medals with a long-awaited gold medal.
The discipline and training applied by decathletes have always been regarded by me as the ultimate in athletic dedication. Whilst it is of course always a huge honour for any decathlete to achieve the ultimate status of World Champion, I cannot help but regard all those who dedicate themselves to this most gruelling of athletic disciplines as Champions - unknown person