Difficult to discuss with this so high level, but in my opinion to be undfeated for so many years as o'brien in nineties or thompson in eighties is much more difficult than accumulating more than 8000 decathlons as sebrle

Really interesting, useful and easy to discussions: I think Hingsen position is not right at all, 16th. He got silver medal in three consecutive years against your all-time number one (I agree of course about number one) and he got three world records, that, moreover, 27 seven years after remains over 8800 as german (Germany!) record and fifth ever decathlon. If Hingsen had been competing with Sebrle and Clay five or six years ago, or with Nool and Dvorak ten or twelve years ago or Jenner in Montreal..., I think he should be after Daley, O´Brien, Sebrle, Mathias, Thorpe and Rafer, nobody else. He was unlucky about competing against Daley, but Foreman, Frazier and Ali fought one against each other in the three or four best years in heavyweight fights, and probably the three guys would be in the top ten. Anyway, clay, again, congratulations from Spain, great article