The men's decathlon at the 1978 European Championships in Prague featured many of the world's leading combined events athletes, including future Olympic champion Daley Thompson. Aleksandr Grebenyuk of the Soviet Union won the European title with
The Goodwill Games were a high-profile Cold War era competition bringing together top athletes from East and West, where Dave Johnson won decathlon gold at the 1990 Goodwill Games with 8403 points, ahead of Dan O'Brien.
Christian Plaziat was unbeatable because he embodied the ideal decathlete profile that day: consistent, technically skilled, in peak shape, and mentally strong - plus energized by his home crowd.