by Elliott Denman
This is the second piece by Elliott Denman on the Paris 2024 Olympics. Elliott Denman was an Olympic race walker in 1956 Melbourne and has been writing ever since! Elliott is 90 years old, our true senior writer and has written for us since 1990. We are always grateful for his thoughts, comments, and humor!
MARKUS ROOTH: WORLD’S GREATEST ATHLETE.
BUT AMERICANS HARDLY NOTICE.
By ELLIOTT DENMAN
Are these the gloriest of track and field’s glory days?
Just ask the “yes” voters.
They point to the whole sport as being gone genuinely global. Top stars are earning (well, relatively speaking) good money on and off the track. Huge crowds (well, Europe, anyway.) TV cameras everywhere. The whole planet is wired. Results to the 100th of a second available within 100th of a second
In 100s of nations. Super shoes. Super tracks. Lots more.
And a cast of global celebrities. Noah Lyles, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone,
Femke Bol, Mondo DuPlantis, Ryan Crouser, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Sifan Hassan, Faith Kipyegon, Rai Benjmin.
Karsten Warholm. Grant Holloway. Gabby Thomas, Yaroslava Mahuchikh, Valarie Allman. And a wealth more.
But it still goes far beyond all that.
Especially so to those of a deca-bent.
Not very long ago – and certainly in my earlier days – track and field’s decathletes were forever – and rightfully – saluted as “the world’s greatest athletes.”
The American deca-guys most certainly so: Bob Mathias, Milton Campbell, Rafer Johnson, Bill Toomey, Bryan Clay, Ashton Eaton.
They ranked above and beyond the best in all those other sports. They had the speed, strength, and skills that would have made them all-stars in all those other athletic activities.
Now, fast forward. It is sad to say that these deca-greats are mostly an afterthought in 2024.
Especially so despite the obvious: They’ve risen to the top 10 different ways – at an Olympic Games
They are designed to determine the kings and queens of all athletic realms.
There’s only so much NBC/Peacock time for Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Leon Marchand, Summer McIntosh, Novak Djokovic,
Ariarne Titmus and Xander Schauffele – or track’s own Lyles, McLaughlin-Levrone, Bol, DuPlantis, and Crouser, et al. – to monopolize.
Getting straight to the point, there’s not much of the media spotlight left out there to shine on a man named Markus Rooth.
He’s a solid 6-2. He’s 22, the first Norwegian to win the Olympic decathlon title since Helge Loveland in 1920, and he’s going to get a lot better.
The 8,796 deca-points he rolled up over two days of action at Stade de France may be just the beginning.
“Altius, Citius, Fortius?”
Yes, for sure. In the years ahead, he’s destined to get faster, jump higher, and strong-arm his favorite implements some prodigious distances.
He opened Friday by dashing the 100 in 10.71 seconds, long jumping 25-7 ¼, putting the shot 50-0 ½, high jumping 6-6 ¼, and dashing a lap in 47.69 seconds.
That still left him in seventh place, behind early leader Leo Neugebauer, the University of Texas NCAA champion and record-breaker competing for Germany.
But wait. His best was just ahead.
Rooth got into gear Saturday, leapfrogging over six men by running the 110 high hurdles in 14.25, flipping the disc 163-5, pole vaulting 17-4 ½, spearing it 219-4, and having enough zip to run 1,500 meters in 4:39.56.
I want to give a big assist to Norwegian teammate Sander Skotheim, who’d no heighted in the PV but came back to help Rooth get through the 1,500.
Said Rooth: “I’m so lucky that I had my friend to run with me.
“I was exhausted. It’s mentally hard. I just ran as hard as I could. It was great.”
As Neugebauer began to fade (to an eventual silver medal) and Grenada’s Lindon Victor (a Texas A&M grad and ex-NCAA king, too) was snaring bronze, the applause for the Norwegian – understandably – got louder and louder,
Eurofans have no trouble expressing their emotions in this sport. They rooted home all three medalists and every one of their pursuers.
Would Rooth still have climbed to the podium if French super-hero Kevin Mayer, the world record-holder for the last six years with his 9,126 total, had not bailed out beforehand with injury? Or if Canadian Pierce LePage, the 2023 world champion, hadn’t taken a similar exit? Or if Canada’s defending Oly champion Damian Warner, or Norweigan buddy Skotheim, hadn’t no-heightened in the PV?
Didn’t matter.
Do it on the day, or don’t do it at all. And Rooth sure did it.
He woke up Saturday morning “feeling great.” And the zip in his legs and oomph in his arms reached golden heights by early evening.
The Oslonian—“ is that the word?”—who trains with the IK Tjalve club has terrific athletic genes.
His mom is a champion at team handball. His sister and cousins run the hurdles. Two uncles were Norwegian international runners.
He ranked 8th at the Budapest World Championships just a year ago, so to be at the top of the world just a year after represents amazing progress.
Will he soon be racking them up at over 9,000 points and chasing Mayer’s
World record sometime soon?
Will he be planning – by LA2028 – to join Mathias (1948-52), Britain’s Daley Thompson (1980-84) and Eaton (2012-16) on the very brief list of men who’ve ever been
Oly deca-doublers? Yes-yes.
However, the parallel question remains: Will he be appropriately recognized as “the world’s greatest athlete?”
In Norway? For sure. Elsewhere in Europe? Quite probably.
In the USA? Please don’t risk the rent money on it.
The 50,000 World Athletics bucks he collected for these two days of heavy lifting may help him acquire improved residential quarters.
Of course/of course/of course, that would be “The House That Rooth.Built.”
