In an instant all the travel fatigue vanished, the tired mind and eyes suddenly all sharp and sparkle, as he leaned further into the page. All the introductory chatter was shut out as the decathlon legend pored over the report detailing HH Manikanta’s 100m record at the National Athletics currently on in Bengaluru.
Then he looked up, and said to no one in particular: “Hmm, so the new Indian record is at 10.23 secs?”
“What was your best?” someone asked. “I did it in 10.21,” Eaton said after a moment of reflection.
It wasn’t as if Eaton was trying to remember. A conversation with the double Olympic and world decathlon champion proved a study in thoughtfulness, an episode in deep reflection. Long pauses, like he was bang in Day 2 of the decathlon, that wait in between discus and javelin or the lonely, mind-numbing, lactic-laced saga of the 1500m. Eaton broke down the demanding 10-event marathon with the spiritual precision of a guru. He explained how the US college system was perhaps the most ideal way to groom an athlete, and how he yearned for a meeting with Neeraj Chopra so that he could pick his brains on where he finds the balance between his javelin and the tons of marketing he does. “He throws the javelin, but that doesn’t mean that’s all he likes to do. I’m curious to know what he plans to do with his kind of platform.”
Read on…
How did you choose decathlon?
I didn’t choose. When I was young, I did a lot of sports. And my thing was I just liked being athletic. And then you know, in the States, you go to school you do just sports. And then you have two options. You can go to university, or you can go start working. I wanted to go to university, but it’s very expensive. Some of my coaches in high school thought I could get a scholarship if I did this track and field event called decathlon. At the time, I was just like a sprinter and a long jumper. And I thought the idea of a scholarship sounded good. So, I said, ‘Yeah, that sounds great. Let’s go get a scholarship.’ But I didn’t have any idea what decathlon was. I was a senior in high school. And by that time, you’re supposed to kind of be choosing where you want to go to college. The coaches told me what the events were in the decathlon. They called the college coaches and said, ‘Hey, we have an athlete that we think would be a good decathlete, you should give him a scholarship. And they asked whether I could do pole vault, whether I could throw the javelin? How were my high jump and hurdle numbers? My coaches would say, well, he doesn’t do any of those things yet. But he could be very good, you should see. Since I’m from Oregon, one of the Oregon coaches came and saw me do a long jump. And they liked what they saw. And they said, ‘We’ll give him a little scholarship. And we’ll train him as a decathlete.’ That’s how my journey took off.
What constitutes the making of a good decathlete?
Basically, you need a strong foundation in various sports, and somebody who’s versatile. When I was young, I did a lot of sports. And what you get from that is a person who can pick up new motions quickly, but then also be able to connect certain motions so that you’re more efficient. For example, the motion of throwing a javelin, like right at the very end, it’s actually very similar to high jump. One must have a background in different sports and body motions, and then somebody who can make connections to improve their motions. One must have speed and power. Traditionally, decathletes were very big people. Not that fast. But I would say it’s way more important to be fast, because 70% of the events are running and jumping.
Do track athletes make better decathletes?
I think it depends on the field athlete. If the field athlete is a long jumper, or triple jumper, or pole vaulter, I think they can make a good decathlete. Traditional decathletes like Daley Thompson were big guys. And slower. But I would say right around 2008, the idea changed. In the US, there was Brian Clay who was faster. He was very good at jumping and still good at throwing. And he was kind of like the first fast guy that scored really high. And then Trey Hardee. And then it was me. The reason is because 70% of the events are running – 100m, long jump, high jump, hurdles, 400m. The interesting bit about decathlon is you compete for two days. In a major championship each day is about 13 hours, you start at 9am for the 100m and you end at 10pm. So, in the whole competition you’re probably competing for 26 hours. Actual physical performance is about four minutes, probably six minutes. So, you want to be a fast, powerful person who can convert energy quickly.
Among the two days, which was your favourite day?
I like them both for different reasons. But I think Day One is the most exciting you know – 100m, 400m, long jump. It’s just like a lot of powerful, fast stuff. Plus, it was my best day.
Which event did you find most difficult to master?
The older I got I really started appreciating all of them. Because they were all you know, different, challenging in their own way. When I was young, I hated shot put.
Our own Tejaswin Shankar won a decathlon silver in the Asian Games with 7666 points. You had gone past 9000 points…
Yeah, but I mean it’s his first one, right? My first try in decathlon got me 6900 points. My advice to him would be, try it again.
Your role model from track and field…
The athlete who impressed me most was Edwin Moses. Probably the one with the best record ever. He was just so smooth. He’s built for it. He remained undefeated for 10 years. I mean, that’s a lot of dominance. It’s crazy.
What process did you follow to peak at the right time?
Honestly, a lot of that is driven by the coach. They’re the ones who put a plan together. But what we do is we work backwards. Let’s say the Olympics are in August. Well, two months before the Olympic trials. So, we want to be on our way to kind of scoring well, being in peak physical condition, but not exactly there yet. A year before the Olympics, we use major competitions to help us dictate where we should be. In the Olympic year, there’s always an indoor World Championships. It’s in January. We go to indoor World Championships, try to win but see where we are. And that will help us understand, like, are we ahead of where we thought, which means you maybe need to slow down your training. It’s not like we know perfectly what to do. The key is where athletes and coaches do really well is make adjustments. We do all the hard work the year before the Olympic Games, the year of the World Championships. And at the Olympics everything is lighter and faster.
What was more challenging for you, winning the 2012 Olympic gold medal or defending it in 2016?
Defending it in Rio de Janeiro definitely. And the challenge was more mental. It’s way harder to defend a title than to be an underdog. Because there’s more at stake to lose, more expectation from yourself. There’s no way to avoid it. I think the satisfaction is not in winning or getting the medal. It’s like can you do this again? If you want to be successful in doing that, again, then motivation has to be intrinsic. The first time it was like, yeah, it’s about getting a medal and scoring a lot of points and whatever. After that, you have to figure out, why am I doing sport? What’s the point?
So, what is the point?
For me, it was to be something beyond sport. I’m trying to figure out what my body is capable of doing. I was trying to discover my potential.
Do you think data architecture is helping athletes nowadays?
There’s a lot of data to be captured that I think could really enhance how people train and how they progress. But we don’t do it very well. Ten years ago, I used video, which was very helpful. In American football, for example, they’re tracking players during training with devices and seeing how far they run in the catapult systems. In basketball, they do the same thing. They track athletes too much. If an athlete agrees, they’ll track how they sleep too. They’ll track their nutrition. They collect date on everything. I think there’s so much more we could do. And then we just don’t do it. Honestly, I think many of the track coaches who are good are quite old. They’ve been in the sport a very long time. And they trust their intuition way more.
You have a black belt in taekwondo. Have you ever thought of going down that lane?
You know, taekwondo is probably one of the most beneficial sports I ever did. The help was more mental than physical. From the first day you start, they make you do things that you don’t think you can do. Because they know that if you can overcome these challenges… I was seven years old and on the first day of training, they said you need to do 100 pushups, else we are not going to teach you. They just wanted you to try. Finally, I got to the point where I could do 100 push-ups and then I would start doing lessons. But they were like, asking you to do 100 pushups is the easy thing we’re going to ask you to do. We ran barefoot on rocks, got hit with sticks. But it was cool. Because once I got to the decathlon, I was unknowingly prepared. My coach would say, do this, do that. And I’d be like, no problem. You know, because I’ve already gone through that. Taekwondo training puts your body into very specific positions. It improves your body control.
Do you think that universities should also produce athletes like they produce tech professionals, doctors, engineers?
For me, that’s the best template. It allows competition that drives people. Universities provide the highest level of competition at that age.
Double Olympic gold medalist Ashton Eaton is the brand ambassador of Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon.