MARKUS ROOTH: WORLD’S GREATEST ATHLETE. BUT AMERICANS HARDLY NOTICE.

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…