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Spread over two days, the decathlon tests the attention span
of sports fans and is based on a complex points system that
computes the athletes' total rankings across 10 track and field
disciplines.
"I think there is a way to make this event and the (women's)
heptathlon also wildly more exciting than it is for spectators
to watch," the 28-year-old American said after clinching his
second consecutive Olympic decathlon gold medal.
"I don't have time to think of the way, because we're training.
But somebody should because ... I don't know, it's just awesome.
"One of the best tweets I saw I think was (comedian) Bill
Murray, and he said we should put an 'Average Joe' in every
event to give a reference. He was talking about sprinting and
all that but that'd be pretty sweet to see in a decathlon."
Bronze medalist Damian Warner of Canada, addressing the same
theme, told reporters one factor that dampened fans' enthusiasm
was that decathletes cannot match the performance of those who
specialize in a single event.
"So we throw the shot put 14 meters and they throw 22 meters,
and they think 'that's not very special' or you see us run 1,500
(meters) in 4.20 and we are lying on the ground dying, and
people out there can run it a lot faster," he said.
"But think what people don't understand, and the kind of lack of
education that Ashton was talking about ... we have a very small
amount of time to work on those events, and we are doing 10
different events.
"I think that's where the 'Average Joe' thing could come in and
people could see how tough it is. Once people see how tough it
is, they get a lot more excited."
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan and Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Mark
Lamport-Stokes)
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