Athletics at the 2004 Athina Summer Games:

The 2003 World Champion was American Tom Pappas, but the world record holder was the Czech, Roman Šebrle, who had won the 2002 European Championships, and in 2001 at Götzis, had broken the 9,000-point barrier with a world record of 9,026. But Pappas was injured going into the Olympics and he would eventually withdraw after a no-height in the pole vault. This left the favorite’s role to Šebrle. American Bryan Clay started strong with 10.44 and 7.96 and after two events led by 52 points ahead of the Kazakh, Dmitry Karpov. Karpov led after the first day with Šebrle second and Clay third. They held those positions thru the pole vault but Šebrle won the javelin with 70.52, with Clay second in that event with 69.71. Karpov finished only 21st in the javelin and fell back to third place entering the 1,500. The medals were sorted out with Karpov almost 400 points ahead of the Netherlands’ Chiel Warners. Šebrle held a 63 point lead over Clay going into the 1,500, but outran him by about one second to secure the gold medal.