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Ashton Eaton Of The United States Wins Gold In Decathlon

Ashton Eaton of the United States smiles after competing in the Men's Decathlon Pole Vault  in London.
Feng Li
/
Getty Images
Ashton Eaton of the United States smiles after competing in the Men's Decathlon Pole Vault in London.

The American Ashton Eaton can call himself the greatest athlete in the world, today.

With 8,869 points, Eaton took the gold medal in the decathlon. His American teammate Trey Hardee took the silver with 8,671 points.

If you're not familiar, the decathlon is the closest the sports world comes to a standardized test in athletic ability. It spans two days and 10 events, including the 100 meter dash, the long jump, the high jump and the shot put.

The final event is the 1,500 meter run. It's a grueling final metric mile. Eaton finished it easily with a time of 4:35.

CBS Sports has a good roundup of all the events and how they have gone over the past two days.

After two days and ten events, Eaton can now call himself the world's greatest athlete.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.