Chiel Warners rose to prominence as a junior with European gold in 1997 and went on to place fifth at the 2004 Athens Olympics with a personal best of 8343 points. After retiring, he took on leadership roles in athlete representation, including
Decathletes train and compete intensely across multiple disciplines over two days, requiring exceptional endurance and versatility, yet often receive far less media recognition than they deserve.
Daley Thompson is a legend! He dominated the decathlon for nearly a decade, winning two Olympic gold medals, two European Championships gold medals and also became decathlon World champion. Between 1980 and 1986, he went undefeated in all
Dezső Szabó won silver medal at the European Championships in Split 1990. After retiring, Dezső Szabó transitioned into coaching and training. He has served as a coach at MTK Budapest, working with athletes including multi ‐event
Failing in just one event can end a decathlete's entire competition, with no points scored and no chance of recovery - no matter how well they've performed elsewhere.
Roman Šebrle became the first decathlete ever to achieve over 9000 points, setting the World Record at 9026 points (Götzis 2001), succeeding his compatriot, Tomaš Dvorak, who had scored 8994 points two years earlier (Prague 1999).
Robert Zmelík’s Olympic triumph helped spark a golden era for Czech decathlon. He inspired future stars like world record holders Tomáš Dvořák and Roman Šebrle.
Robert de Wit dominated nationally, winning the Dutch decathlon title multiple times in 1981, 1982, 1984 and 1988. He set his personal best of 8447 points in May 1988 at a meet in Eindhoven.
Mike Maczey represented Germany at its highest level - national champion twice, Olympic competitor, and placed in the top eight at European Championships. At Götzis 2000 he posted his lifetime best - 8461 points.
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