Steve Fritz missed an Olympic medal by 20 points in Atlanta (1996). He had finished the best competition of his life, scoring 8644 points. That got him 4th place.
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).
Simon Poelman's legacy to New Zealand athletics is that of the greatest all round athlete in it's history. His outstanding and, probably, under developed ability at a wide range of events brought him successes at many major events. He is also
Diverted off the troubled path of his childhood, Bryan Clay went on to become one of the most decorated decathletes of all time. He won an Olympic gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Games (2008) and became decathlon World champion in Helsinki 2005.
Paul Terek's personal best in the decathlon came at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials in Sacramento where he scored 8312 points and finished in 3rd place to earn a spot in the Athens Olympic Games.
Kip Janvrin is the ultimate decathlete. What a remarkably enduring, high ‐quality career! Janvrin won the 1989 U. S. Olympic Festival, the 1995 Pan Am Games, the 2001 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships and a record 15 decathlons at
Decathlon 2000 has pretty much everything you could want to know about decathlon. Whenever I go to a decathlon, you can be sure that I’ve got a sheaf of Decathlon 2000 athlete profiles printed, tabbed, and highlighted in my notebook - Gabby Pieraccini