This Day, That Year – June 23

This day in history we feature Ashton Eaton. Ashton breaks the decathlon world record at the United States Olympic Trials on this day in 2012.

Trivia – Ashton Eaton

Ashton James Eaton is a retired American decathlete and two-time Olympic champion, who holds the world record in the indoor heptathlon event. Eaton was born in Portland, Oregon, on January 21, 1988. Eaton was initially coached at Oregon by Dan Steele, the associate director of track and a former decathlete. In 2008, Eaton won the decathlon at the NCAA Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Championship. In 2009, Eaton defended his decathlon title at the NCAA Championships to win with 8,241 points. He also won the heptathlon title at the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships with 5,988 points. Eaton won the Division I field athlete of the year award in 2009.

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Eaton was the second decathlete to break the 9,000-point barrier in the decathlon, with 9,039 points, a score he bettered on August 29, 2015, when he beat his own world record with a score of 9,045 points, and remains the only person to exceed 9000 points twice. His world record was broken by Frenchman Kevin Mayer on September 16, 2018, with a total of 9,126 points, who became the third man to pass the 9,000-point barrier. Ashton Eaton competed for the Oregon Track Club Elite team based in Eugene, Oregon. In college, Eaton competed for the University of Oregon, where he was a five-time NCAA champion, and won The Bowerman award in 2010. In 2011, Eaton won the first international medal of his career, a silver, in the decathlon at the 2011 World Championships. The following year, Eaton broke his own world record in the heptathlon at the 2012 World Indoor Championships, and then broke the world record in the decathlon at the Olympic Trials. After setting the world record, Eaton won the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Eaton won the 2013 world title in the decathlon with an 8809-point performance in Moscow. He successfully defended his Olympic title in Rio 2016 by winning the decathlon gold medal and tying the Olympic record. Eaton is only the third Olympian (after Bob Mathias of the US and Great Britain’s Daley Thompson) to achieve back-to-back gold medals in the decathlon. He announced his retirement from the sport just a few months later on January 3, 2017.

Source – Wikipedia