The decathlon was historically dominated by athletes from the United States, the Nordic countries (especially Finland), and later the Soviet bloc. France had very little tradition of success in combined events. Ignace Heinrich became one of the
Romain Barras became Decathlon European Champion in Barcelona 2010. Barras was only the fourth French decathlon champion in European history, following Ignace Heinrich (1950), Christian Plaziat (1990), and Alain Blondel (1994) Post
Coached by Gennadiy Morozov, Aleksei Drozdov benefited from moving to Bryansk to train, transitioning from local sprinter interest to elite multi-event athlete following encouragement from family and early exposure to combined events training.
The Decathlon's nice in that you get to know the other athletes. It's almost like everyone helps each other out. We're all out there trying to win, but at the same time there's a friendship there too. It's always fun going to meets and catching up with the other guys - Tom Pappas