Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's decathlon explained

The men's decathlon event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between August 5 and August 6. The 17-year-old Bob Mathias of the United States won with a points total of 7139.^[1]

Competition format

The decathlon consists of ten track and field events, with a points system that awards higher scores for better results in each of the ten components. The athletes all compete in one competition with no elimination rounds.

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Date	Time	Round
Thursday, 5 August 1948	10:30 11:30 15:00 16:00 17:30	100 metres Long jump Shot put High jump 400 metres
style=background:lemonchiffon	Friday, 6 August 1948	style=background:lemonchiffon	10:30 11:30 14:30 16:30 18:30	style=background:lemonchiffon	110 metres hurdles Discus throw Pole vault Javelin throw 1500 metres

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record Olympic record

7900

Berlin, Germany

8 August 1936

Overall results

Key:

Key:

DNS

Did not start

DNF

Did not finish

Rank	Athlete	Overall points	100 m	LJ	SP	HJ	400 m	110 m H	DT	PV	JT	1500 m
		7139
		6974
		6950
4		6929
5		6877
6		6739
7		6731
8		6715
9		6712
10		6663
11		6552
12		6444
13		6421
14		6401
15		6325
16		6153
17		6142
18		6141
19		6106
20		6026
20		6026
22		5829
23		5808
24		5730
25		5590
26		5586
27		5558
28		5031

External links

• Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad, The (1948). The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad. LA84 Foundation. Retrieved 5 September 2016.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Athletics at the 1948 London Summer Games: Men's Decathlon . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417175453/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1948/ATH/mens-decathlon.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 25 January 2018 . sports-reference.com.