world history of decathlon

Frédéric - Below is what I compiled from various sources about Örn Clausen. He was an icon in my track club in Iceland, he helped me on personal matters when I was young, and I trained with his son. Örn was a huge inspiration for the small nation of Iceland in the middle of last century:


Örn Clausen (B: November 8th ,1928 – D: December 11th, 2008) was a prominent Icelandic athlete and a lawyer of Danish and Icelandic ancestry. He was among Europe’s best athletes (track and field) around the year 1950 along with his twin brother, Haukur.

Örn and Haukur Clausen were identical twins, born in Reykjavík to Arreboe Clausen and Sesselja Þorsteinsdóttir. Örn received an associate degree in 1948 from Menntaskóli Reykjavíkur and a law degree from the University of Iceland in 1953. He operated the Tripoli movie theater in Reykjavík for 4 years from 1953 and then opened his private defense law office where he provided law services from 1958 through 2007. At that time he was the oldest practicing lawyer in Iceland at age 78. Örn took on duties for the association of Icelandic lawyers, was involved in politics and supported his athletics club. He later received highest honors from his club and the Icelandic Athletics Association. Örn was married twice and had 5 boys and 2 daughters.

The twin brothers were involved in athletics from early age and competed for Íþróttafélag Reykjavíkur (ÍR). They competed in the London 1948 Olympic games. Örn set as many as 10 national records and was ranked in top 3 in the world in decathlon from 1949-51. The following are the decathlon achievements for Örn:

1948 – 12th place at the London Olympic games at the age of 19
1949 – Nordic Champion in Stockholm (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland)
Fought a good battle against USA´s Bob Mathias in Oslo at the USA vs. Nordic Countries, leading him through the 6th event
1950 – Silver medalist at the European championships in Brussels (7297p / old table)
Note: The finish of the 1500m was memorable as Örn was in the lead, realizing that he would not win the points total over Ignace Heinrich of France, slowed down and in an extended handshake, they crossed the finish line together. A new scoring table was approved at the 1950 European Championships, and according to that table, Örn would have won the European title, 23 points ahead.
Bob Mathias came to Iceland and competed in the 110mh against Örn and they tied at 15.3sec
1951 – Set a Nordic record / second best world score (7453p old table / 6932p ´85t - July 29)
Location: Reykjavik, Iceland, was 23 old points behind Ignace Heinrich of France
Note: Their score was quite high in the top 10 all time scoring at that time

Personal records:
100m 10.7s 1951
200m 22.5s 1948
400m 49.8s 1950
1500m 4:42.2min 1951
110mh 14.7s 1951
400mh 54.7s 1951
HJ 1.86m 1949
LJ 7.20m 1950
PV 3.40m 1949
SP 13.00m 1951
DT 40.84m 1951
JT 47.96m 1950
Decathlon 7453p (old table) / 6932p (´85t) July 29, 1951
(10,8s-7,12m-13,42m-1,80m-50,5s - 14,7s-40,84m-3,20m-45,44m-4:42,2min)

Brussels EC score (7297p / old table) August 27, 1950
(10.9s, 7.09m, 13.7m, 1.80m, 49.8s – 15.1s, 36.20m, 3.40m, 47.96m, 4:49.6min)

London OL 1948 score 6444p old table (6110p ´85t) measuring 184cm and 83kg.
(11.1s, 6.55m, 12.87m, 1.80m, 54.7s – 16.0s, 36.34m, 3.20m, 44.16m, 5:07.0min)

Örn was set to compete at the 1952 Helsinki games and was expected to be a strong contender, however, due to an injury sustained after arriving at the games, he was forced to withdraw. Both Örn and Haukur retired from athletics in 1952 at age 23.

Thank you very much Stefan for your reply. It completes informations that I had already got. Have a nice day.

Stefan,
We know well Clausen in France, because of his battles with Ignace Heinrich in 1950-51, when they meet themselves twice for the european supremacy (the second one in Reykjavik, in very bad wheather). They would have been both serious opponents of Mathias in 1952, if they would'nt be injuried !