Double Olympic champion Ashton Eaton has thrown out a challenge to come up with ways to make the decathlon more exciting, suggesting that most spectators fail to grasp the intensity of the arduous event.
The American won his second straight Olympic gold medal, extending his reign in a sport whose champion earns the title of the world's greatest athlete.
Eaton edged France's Kevin Mayer, who had threatened his position with strong showings in the pole vault and javelin throw, into the silver medal position.
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 Eaton said.
"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."
Every Olympic event should include one average person competing for reference.
— Bill Murray (@BiIIMurray) July 19, 2016
Bronze medallist Damian Warner of Canada, addressing the same theme, said one factor that dampened fans' enthusiasm was that decathletes cannot match the performance of those who specialise in a single event.
"So we throw the shot put 14 metres and they throw 22 metres, and they think 'that's not very special' or you see us run 1,500 (metres) 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."
