Word: decathlon
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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There, day after day, Johnson and Yang held their own private meet. Formosa's formidable Yang had been a promising baseball pitcher at home in 1954 when track coaches noticed his running speed and agility, talked him into trying the decathlon. To his astonishment, Yang won the Asian Games that year. In 1958 Yang came to the U.S. for a couple of months to pick up pointers, liked it so well that he learned to speak English and settled down as a physical education student at U.C.L.A. to work with Johnson. At 6 ft. 1 in., 180 lbs., Yang...
...that sense, the decathlon poses an impossible challenge. No one man can ever hope to be the absolute best in all ten events. The lean sprinter will have trouble with the shot; the beefy weight man will lumber through the 100 meters. Worse yet, the events are cunningly alternated so that the competitor has no chance to use the same muscles and reflexes twice in succession. The cumulative effect is numbing. Because of his rare combination of speed and strength, Johnson is at his best in the 100 meters, 400 meters, the javelin, discus and shotput. But his weight...
...have come from Russia's Kuznetsov. At 6 ft. 1 in., 187 lbs., Kuznetsov, by profession a high school science teacher, has neither the size nor the natural talent of Johnson. To make the most of what he has, Kuznetsov has worked laboriously on his technique in each decathlon event since 1953, now exceeds Johnson in the pole vault and 1,500 meters, compares well with him in the broad jump, high jump and discus. Kuznetsov is proudly grooming his five-year-old son with the same thoroughness : "When we wake up in the morning, Vitya jumps...
...expect he will surpass his previous show ing. I am sure that when we meet again in Rome we shall be good friends." Just Poof. Kuznetsov, Johnson, Yang and a husky long shot from Oregon named Dave Edstrom (best score: 8,176) will likely turn the decathlon competition in Rome into the tensest in history. "It's only going to take one bad event to bump a guy right out of a gold medal," says Coach Drake. "A bad start in the sprints, a puff of wind at the wrong time in the high jump or pole vault...
...decathlon, each competitor's performance in each of the ten events is measured against a formidable 78-page book of tables...