For the first time, an athletic all-round competition for men was held at the Olympic Games . There were major differences to today's decathlon . The participants had to complete all ten disciplines in one day. Seven sub-competitions roughly correspond to today's program: 100- yard run (today 100 meters ), shot put , high jump , pole vault , 120-yard hurdle run (today 110 meters ), long jump , mile run (today 1500 meters ). Instead of a 400-meter run , javelin and discus throw , hammer and weight throw and walking over 880 yards were on the program in 1904 . The table of points was based on the world record at the time, for which 1000 points were earmarked. On the short runs, only the winning time was stopped, the times of the other runners were extrapolated from the estimated arrears.
Olympic champion was the Irish Tom Kiely , who started for Great Britain . The other medals were won by two athletes from the United States. Silver went to Adam Gunn , bronze to Truxtun Hare .
For this competition, the experts expected a three-way battle between Irish champion Tom Kiely, two-time US champion Ellery Clark - Olympic champion in the high and long jump of 1896 - and the American Adam Gunn. But Clark was sick, could not keep up and gave up the competition after the sixth discipline, the pole vault . There he had remained without a valid attempt and thus without points. Tom Kiely was in fifth position after four disciplines, then brought himself to the top thanks to his strengths in the throwing disciplines and in the hurdles and won the gold medal in front of fellow favorite Adam Gunn. Truxtun Hare, Olympic silver medalist in the hammer throw of 1900 , won bronze in front of the Briton John Holloway.
Tom Kiely came on his own account and turned down several offers to cover costs by his association and US universities. In Ireland they wanted to give him a great reception, but Kiely returned to his homeland without any fuss and without the knowledge of his compatriots. Besides the Canadian hammer throw winner, he was the only gold medalist at the St. Louis track and field competitions who did not come from the United States.
The decathlon , like the three-way fight, has a special position with regard to the date of the event. All athletics competitions took place from late August to early September 1904. The two all-round competitions, on the other hand, were held at the beginning of July.
At the Megede and on the IOC side , Ellery Clark has 700 points less listed, which puts him in sixth place behind John Grieb. However, this information seems rather unlikely due to the precisely listed services for Clark at SportsReference and the correspondence of place and score at Kluge . Max Emmerich mentioned here does not appear at the Megede .
Irish Olympic Champion Tom Kiely
Bronze medalist Truxton Hare, USA, Olympic hammer throw second in 1900
Fifth place Ellery Clark, Olympic champion in the high and long jump of 1896
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Great Britain
