A Tip of the cap to Beautiful Central Oregon's Ashton Eaton

[MARIS61]

Ashton Eaton, La Pine's hometown hero, has just won the Decathlon Gold.

http://www.ajc.com/sports/ashton-eaton-wins-olympic-1494757.html

LONDON — Ashton Eaton won the Olympic decathlon gold medal by 198 points on Thursday night.

Eaton set the decathlon world record at the U.S. trials in June and backed it up with an Olympic victory with 8,869 points.

Two-time world champion Trey Hardee settled for silver with 8,671 points and Leonel Suarez of Cuba took the bronze, 346 points behind Eaton, at 8,523.

 

[HailBlazers]

OT, Mods please move.

 

[MARIS61]

OT, Mods please move.

We've been posting about the Olympics here for 12 days now.

http://sportstwo.com/threads/218715-OT-I-love-the-Olympics

Have a little American Spirit.

 

[HailBlazers]

Gotcha! Punk

 

[MARIS61]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympi...irst-gold-silver-in-decathlon-since-1956.html

LONDON – Ashton Eaton is the world’s greatest athlete. And Trey Hardee isn’t far behind.

Eaton took gold in the Olympic decathlon – the event traditionally bestowing the title of "world’s greatest athlete" – holding off his U.S. teammate on the final day of competition. The world-record holder in the event, Eaton scored 8,869 points. Hardee finished second with 8,671 points. The 1-2 finish is the first time in 56 years that the United States has won gold and silver in the event, matching the feat of Milt Campbell and Rafer Johnson in the 1956 Melbourne Games.


Scored by the cumulative point totals in 10 events, Eaton won three events – the 100 meters, long jump and the 400 meters. He also finished second in the high jump and third in the pole vault.

[ Video: Defending decathlon gold medalist Bryan Clay fails to qualify for London ]

Hardee was never far behind, finishing second to Eaton in the 100 meters and holding the second points position throughout the 10-event decathlon. Hardee finished third or higher in four events – the 100m, 400m (third place), discus (third place) and javelin (third place).


Eaton became the new world-record holder in the decathlon at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June, scoring 9,039 points and breaking the 11-year-old total of 9,026 set by the Czech Republic’s Roman Sebrle. And he wasted no time getting off to a fast start in London, winning the 100-meter portion of his event with a 10.35 seconds – good enough to break the record of 10.41 run by Bill Toomey of the U.S. in the 1968 Mexico City Games.

 

[MARIS61]

Maybe America will start paying attention to the decathlon again.

The newest decathlon king from the USA labored to finish the last few yards Thursday night, the way they all do. Ashton Eaton did not collapse at the finish line, the way so many have.

By then, he had earned the right to be proclaimed the world's greatest athlete — or do they do that anymore? Second greatest was Trey Hardee, another American. They had left the rest of the pack behind, their feat so impressive, they made the event impossible to ignore.

STORY: Usain Bolt completes the double-double
Alas, they rolled home first and second 30 minutes after the human meteor that is Usain Bolt had flashed across another night in the 200. They were the postscript.

Meanwhile, across London, the American women beat Japan in soccer, which played big back home. So did anyone have time left at the end of the evening to notice the guy who nearly set a world record in one of the toughest events imaginable?

There Eaton was, maybe the most tired man in town, crossing the line of the 1500 meters after the last exhausting step of 10 events in two exhausting days, with a final total of 8869 points, missing his own world mark by 170 points. Hardee finished with 8,671, Cuba's Leonel Suarez third at 8,523.

"My goal is just to win. I am not considering a world record," Eaton had said the day before. He meant it, even passing on the pole vault Thursday to conserve his energy, rather than try for higher and more points.

But he won, all right, taking the event by the throat from the start. Hardee closed to within 99 points after strong showings in the hurdles and discus — the sixth and seventh events — but lost ground in the pole vault and Eaton was gone for good.

So bring on the Wheaties boxes. But it is curious. Whatever happened to the decathlon on the American radar screen?

Somehow, the decathlon has gotten lost in the bright Olympic lights, at least in the USA. The winners' names do not echo as loudly as they did. Bruce Jenner won 1976, and become a celebrity. Anyone here remember Bryan Clay? He won a American gold medal in Beijing.

Maybe it's a 21st century thing. The event is hard to follow and complicated to assess. It takes forever. The public prefers its drama in simple Twitter size, and the decathlon is a term paper. Bolt is granted that title by some, even though he admits he hates running further than 200 meters at a time.

And yet there is no sterner test of an athlete, no more demanding road to a gold medal. Look at how Eaton spent his Thursday. He hurdled for breakfast, tossed the discus for lunch, pole vaulted at tea time, threw the javelin for dinner, and finished up running 1500 meters.

There is a common man folklore to the decathlon. Once, it was as if the U.S. Olympic champions came straight off Main Street.

A car salesman in 1936. That was Glenn Morris in Berlin, and he received his medal from Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress.

A teenage high school student from a small town in California in 1948. Bob Mathias was 17, and when asked how he would celebrate said, ``I'll start shaving, I guess.''

An English teacher, Bill Toomey, in 1968.

Eaton is a 24-year-old product of small-town Oregon, Hardee an Alabama native who tried track and field when he was cut from his high school basketball team.

They are stories ready-made to be lit up in the way only Olympian dominance can do.

If only they ran in the 100.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olym...thon-eaton-gold-trey-hardee-silver/56919946/1

 

[Wheels]

Go China

 

[Pinwheel1]

Breaking the 11 year old WR in Eugene at the trials was amazing. He basically coasted at the Olympics to win gold and the title of World's Greatest Athlete.

The Oregonians did Ok.
Rupp being the first American to medal in his event in 48 years. That blows me away.

 

[jlprk]

Congratulations to La Pine! How about the Realtors Association organize a parade for Ashton's homecoming? Each business would get to advertise itself on a car with a sign on top.

 

[Nikolokolus]

Something seems off in the title for this thread?

Hey Maris I think you meant to say,

"A Tip of the cap to Beautiful Central Oregon's Ashton Eaton

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Something seems off in the title for this thread?

Hey Maris I think you meant to say,

"A Tip of the cap to Beautiful Central Oregon's THAT INCLUDES LA PINE, ITS NOT JUST SOME CRACKA AZZ HICK TOWN YO Ashton Eaton

FTFY

 

[jlprk]

When I moved from Southern California to the Northwest, I learned why smaller towns get so much praise. No big city traffic for me.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

When I moved from Southern California to the Northwest, I learned why smaller towns get so much praise. No big city traffic for me.

It's the small town economy that is the catch.

 

[MARIS61]

It's the small town economy that is the catch.

True, you've got to be creative or entreprenurial to make your fortune here.

But since the majority of permanent residents here are retired and the rest put quality of life waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay above the stockpiling of monetary wealth, that's exactly the way we like it. Few would welcome rapid industrial growth and most newcomers are fleeing big cities.

 

[jlprk]

Here's what I figured out in the 70s, when a new phrase, quality of life, was assumed by everyone to be synonymous with an old phrase, standard of living.

One is about the pursuit of happiness, and one is about the pursuit of money. Out here in the sticks, we have the higher quality of life. In the city, where the economy is stronger with more jobs, you have the higher standard of living.

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

OT

 

[SantaDora]

Congrats to the new greatest athlete in the world.

But Maris, his fiancee is Canadian. Why do you cheer for the communists?

As for the standard of living, all you need is a puppy to raise it. You move all your stuff higher so it will not be chewed... thus, higher standard of living.