What is Decathlon?

The Basics

Decathlon is the men's combined track and field event that is contested at the Olympic Games. Unlike other "athlons" the decathlon is not a multi-sport competition. There is no biking, skiing, shooting, horseback riding,  swimming, gymnastics, or wrestling (although wrestling was contested as part of the ancient pentathlon according to my reliable sources at Wikipedia). So to be clear:

Decathlon is a 100% track and field multi-event competition. The decathlon is split into two days of competition and always follows the same order:

Day 1

                                 100m          Long Jump    Shot Put   High Jump   400m

                                         

Day 2

                         110m Hurdles    Discus      Pole Vault      Javelin      1500m

    
In order to win the decathlon the athlete has to accumulate more points than all the other competitors. Points are based strictly on the performance and not on placing. An 11 second hundred gets the same number of points regardless of whether the competitor is the fastest person in the competition or the
slowest.