Dimitry Yakoushkin

Comparing earlier scores is something people might have to let go of in order to allow the event (and scoring) to advance. Also, all that really matters is the WR. Thus if you make an adjustment in the middle of a time when the WR is being broken (hint - in a year or two when eaton breaks it) and then make the change, it will be "fair", as the next record will be by the person who already has it.
I'd love to see something like 15 total attempts between the long jump, shot, disc and jav, that the athlete can use in any way. (for example, if you get a great long jump in the first two attempts, but want six throws in the shot, then end up using another six in the disc, it would leave you one javelin throw.) That way, I think the total time for the decathlon would be the same over each day (many people would still end up using 10-12 attempts and the average would probably still be 12 total between the 4 events.) Regardless, right now in athletics I think the most important thing, by far, is to change female hurdle height and implement weight. It would reset the heptathlon world record, for one, and put the disc and hurdle records back to planet earth and into a time where there is more comprehensive drug testing. I'd much rather see that change first

No way an elite shot putter runs 5mintes-anything for a 1500, but I could see an elite 1500 runner throwing 10m in the shot put with a little training. I think maybe the shot put/high jump or long jump combination is more indicative of a decathlete's relative abilities versus other athletes. However, this analysis does an amazing job of establishing a quantified way of comparing single event elite athletes against decs, and the decathletes match up very well against all the elites, especially since they have to do it on the same competition. Awesome.