Eaton, Ashton

Ashton Eaton, in full Ashton James Eaton, (born January 21, 1988, Portland, Oregon, U.S.), American decathlete who dominated the sport in the 2010s, winning numerous International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) world championships and gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Eaton was raised by his single mother in rural Oregon. He attended Mountain View High School, where he was a three-sport athlete (gridiron football, wrestling, and track and field) and won state championships in the 400-metre run and the long jump as a senior. Intrigued by Eaton’s natural athleticism, his high-school track coach encouraged him to try the decathlon, although Eaton had never tried the pole vault or any of the throwing events (shot put, discus, and javelin) that are central to the sport. Eaton’s raw talent was enough to impress a University of Oregon assistant track coach, and in 2006 he was given a partial decathlon scholarship to that school. Over the course of his career at Oregon, he won five National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships: three in the decathlon and two in the heptathlon. Eaton made his first splash on the international athletics scene in 2010 while he was still a student at Oregon, capturing the NCAA title in the indoor heptathlon (consisting of the 60-metre sprint, 60-metre hurdles, 1,000-metre run, pole vault, high jump, long jump, and shot put) with a world-record score of 6,499 points. That accomplishment was a key element in Eaton’s being honoured with the 2010 Bowerman Award as the top collegiate track-and-field athlete in the U.S.

In 2011 Eaton secured his first international medal, a silver in the decathlon at the IAAF world championships. The following year he won the heptathlon gold medal at the IAAF world indoor championships, where he also broke his own heptathlon world record, with a score of 6,645 points. During the U.S. decathlon trials for the 2012 London Olympic Games, Eaton totaled 9,039 points to break the event’s world record. He followed this feat by capturing the decathlon gold medal at the London Games with 8,869 points. Eaton continued his dominance of the sport in 2013 by taking gold at the IAAF world championships. He won a second heptathlon gold at the 2014 IAAF world indoor championships to run his winning streak to an impressive four straight major international competitions, which he then extended with his commanding performance at the 2015 IAAF world championships. There he won another gold medal, breaking his own world record and staking his claim as the “greatest athlete in the world”—a moniker often associated with decathletes because the sport demands that they excel in a variety of events. He finished with a point total of 9,045, which bested by six points the record he had set in 2012. Eaton’s new record stood until 2018, when it was surpassed by Kevin Mayer of France.

Eaton won the heptathlon gold medal at the 2016 world indoor championships, an accomplishment that he eclipsed a few months later by tying an Olympic record with 8,893 points to capture a second consecutive Olympic decathlon gold. The following year Eaton retired from competition.