Decathlon Scoring Tables - Early Decathlon Tables

Early Decathlon Tables

All of the earliest attempts at formalizing decathlon scoring, from the first formal submission (prepared by the U.S. in 1884) until 1915, involved linear scoring equations. The American model was based on world records, but models concurrently used by several Nordic countries were based on their respective national records.

The decathlon was first included in the Olympic Games in 1912, requiring a uniform standard. The first Olympic tables adopted were also linear functions; they were based not on world or national records, but, rather, on the 1908 Olympic records for each of the individual events. The tables were soon updated with the 1912 Olympic records - and the universally-disliked extension of event scores to three decimal places was discarded in favor of integer scores - and the tables were used thus in the next four Olympiads.

The rapid evolution of the scoring tables caused results to vary widely. For instance, Akilles Järvinen, the silver medalist in the decathlon in both the 1928 and 1932 Olympics, would have won gold in both years rather handily under most later years' scoring tables.