The title of "World's Greatest Athlete" now belongs to American Ashton Eaton.
Eaton, just a bit more than six weeks after breaking the world record in the event, won gold in men's decathlonThursday at the 2012 Summer Olympics, finishing with 8869 points. Fellow Team USA member and two-time defending world champion Trey Hardee won the silver (and the title of "World's Second-Greatest Athlete"?) with 8671 points. It marks the first time Americans went 1-2 in the Olympic decathlon since Milton Campbell and Rafer Johnson accomplished the feat in 1956.
Cuba's Leonel Suarez won the bronze medal (8523 points), holding off Belgium's Hans van Alphen. The 2004 gold medalist from Athens, Roman Šebrle, -- and former world record holder before Eaton came along -- did not finish, withdrawing due to injuries.
Decathlon is a two-day, 10-event competition. Day 1 consists of 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400m, and on Day 2 it's 110m hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1500m.
Eaton had the best performance in three of the disciplines, winning the 100m, long jump and the 400m, and finished second in high jump and third pole vault. In the final event of the competition, the 1500m, Eaton finished seventh, running in a time of 4:33:59 (he needed to 4:29.86 to break the Olympic record of 8893 points).
For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation's London 2012 Olympics Hub.
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