9. ASHTON EATON
Ashton Eaton is making a return to our Top 10 list this year, although he now sits on 9th position, unlike last year when he occupied the highly coveted No.1 spot, thanks to his World Record (WR) breaking performance at the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing where he raked in a massive haul of 9,045 points.
The 28-year old has remained unbeaten in major competitions since winning Silver at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, and has set five WRs in the course of his illustrious career. He continued his unbeaten run in 2016 and began the season on a good note.
The Oregon native claimed his third successive World Indoor title in the Heptathlon, achieving this feat before his home crowd in Portland where he dominated the event with 6470 points. It was a competition to remember for the Eatons as his wife Brianne also claimed the Pentathlon crown, her first, at the same championship.
Eaton went on to win the US Olympic Trials with a World Leading (WL) mark of 8750 points, and looked set to retain his crown from London 2012. Despite not having a WR in his kitty this year, Eaton successfully defended his title, equaling the Olympic Record (OR) of 8893 points.
This makes him only the third man in history to win the Olympic Decathlon twice, a feat last accomplished in 1984 by Great Britain’s Daley Thompson. It is therefore not surprising that his long-time coach, Harry Marra was named recipient of the 2016 IAAF Coaching Achievement Award, seeing that the multi-event athlete attained these groundbreaking achievements under his tutelage.
