Who Is the Best Athlete? An Event Designed to Answer That

The programme runs in a fixed order over two days and is designed so that no single physical type dominates. The first day consists of a hundred metre sprint, the long jump, the shot put, the high jump and a four hundred metre run. The second day begins with a hundred and ten metre hurdles, then the discus, the pole vault, the javelin and finally a fifteen hundred metre run. The order is deliberate, placing explosive events early and endurance last, and the final race is notoriously decisive because competitors arrive at it exhausted and because it rewards a completely different physiology from everything preceding it.

Converting seconds, metres and points into one number requires a formula:

• •Each event has its own equation converting a performance into points
• •The equations are not linear, so improvement at a high level is worth more
• •A benchmark performance in each event is worth roughly a thousand points
• •Running events use an equation based on how far the time falls below a reference
• •Field events use one based on how far the distance exceeds a reference
• •The tables were last substantially revised in 1985

Any conversion between incommensurable things embeds a judgement, and the tables have been criticised continuously since they were introduced. They determine how much a throw is worth against a sprint, and therefore which physical type the event rewards, so adjusting them changes who wins without anybody running any differently. Analysis has repeatedly found that the throwing events are scored generously relative to the running ones, which favours larger competitors, and that the final race is worth fewer points than its difficulty warrants. The tables are also empirical rather than principled, being fitted to historical performances, so they inherit the state of each event at the time of fitting and drift as events develop unevenly.

The ten-event programme is one of a family and the others clarify what it is testing. The heptathlon for women runs seven events over two days, dropping the pole vault, discus and one of the runs, and replacing the fifteen hundred with an eight hundred metre race, and a separate indoor heptathlon for men exists with a different selection. An indoor pentathlon runs five events in a single day. The ancient Greek pentathlon combined running, jumping, throwing and wrestling, and the winner was regarded as the outstanding athlete of the games, which is the same idea. Modern pentathlon is unrelated in origin, combining fencing, swimming, riding, shooting and running on the model of a soldier crossing hostile country.

The demands conflict with each other in ways that make the event peculiar among sports. Mass helps the throws and hurts the distance run, so competitors settle at a compromise body composition that is optimal for nothing individually. Technique must be maintained in four distinct throwing and jumping disciplines simultaneously, each of which is a full-time specialisation for other athletes, so training time is divided rather than concentrated. Fatigue accumulates across two days, and the pole vault, which demands precision and nerve, falls on the second afternoon when competitors are least capable of either. Injury risk is elevated because a competitor must continue, since withdrawing from one event ends the whole competition.

Ten events over two days run in a fixed order that places explosive disciplines early and a gruelling final race last. Non-linear equations convert performances in different units into points, with a benchmark worth roughly a thousand. Those equations decide which physical type the event rewards, and analysis has repeatedly found the throws scored generously against the runs. Withdrawing from any event ends the whole competition.