Icosathlon

By Deane Barker • •

This is a relatively new track-and-field event. It’s a multi-event – like the decathlon and heptathlon – where athletes compete in multiple disciplines over two days for a combined score.

There are 20 events (it’s sometimes called the “double decathlon”). They appear to be held in quick succession, because the Wikipedia page displays where there are “one hour breaks” in the schedule (and 10 events per day doesn’t leave a lot of downtime). There are apparently also single-day icosathlons that have an even faster pace.

The events are (not in order of performance, but sorted by discipline):

Sprinting

Hurdles

Running

Throwing

Jumping

Women have traditionally competed in a 14-event contest called the “tetradecathlon” or “double heptathlon.” However, there are now females competing directly in the icosathlon. (This seems to be controversial. There’s an entire website called Ico for All which is lobbying for female participation in the icosathlon.)

This page states:

The first icosathlon for men was held in Helsinki in September 1981.

Wikipedia shows the world championships starting in 1990. For over a decade, they were held in Finland, but I can’t find much on the history of the event to see if it has any Finnish cultural association.

The championships are governed by an organization called International Association for Multievents which appears to exist solely for the icosathlon and the tetradecathlon (the decathon and heptathlon are more “official” and are therefore governed by World Athletics and the Olympics).

Why I Looked It Up

A post on LinkedIn celebrated that Lauren Kuntz competed in the icosathlon (not the tetradecathlon) in 2023 (she’s the CEO of what appears to be a consulting firm).

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