Athletics at the 1992 Summer Games: Previous Summer Games ▪ Next Summer Games
Host City: Barcelona, Spain
Venue(s): Montjuïc Olympic Stadium, Barcelona
Date Started: August 5, 1992
Date Finished: August 6, 1992
Format: Scoring by 1985 point tables.
Gold: | ![]() |
Silver: | ![]() |
Bronze: | ![]() |
The top-ranked decathlete in the world in 1991 was American [Dan OâBrien] who won the 1991 TAC Meet with a top score of 8,844 points, and was also the 1991 World Champion. Another American, [Dave Johnson], had been world-ranked #2 in 1990, and won the TAC Meet in 1986, 1989, 1990, and 1992, placing second to OâBrien in 1991. Both athletes were sponsored by Reebok and leading up to the Barcelona Olympics, the shoe manufacturer began a series of ads featuring the two decathletes. In the ads, they were always called simply Dan and Dave, and Reebok showed them training and competing against each other, hoping to reap the rewards of both of them winning medals in the decathlon at Barcelona. But one problem remained â the US Olympic Trials. OâBrien was the stronger of the two and was leading comfortably in that meet on the second day, when he no-heighted in the pole vault. He had no chance to make the Olympic team after that failure. Johnson went on to win the Olympic Trials and make the team.
With OâBrien out, and defending champion [Christian Schenk] injured, the favoriteâs role in Barcelona probably fell to 1990 European Champion [Christian Plaziat]. But the event was now highly unpredictable. The lead after day one went to Germanyâs [Paul Meier] but after the high hurdles, Czechoslovakiaâs [Robert ZmÄlik] took over the lead and never let go. He won quite easily with Spainâs [Antonio Peñalver] 199 points back in second place. Dave Johnson won the bronze medal, bringing Reebok some measure of solace, especially in Europe, since ZmÄlÃk also wore Reebok.
Rank | Athlete | Age | Team | NOC | Medal | P(1985AT) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Robert ZmÄlÃk | 23 | Czechoslovakia | TCH | Gold | 8.611 | |
2 | Antonio Peñalver | 23 | Spain | ESP | Silver | 8.412 | |
3 | Dave Johnson | 29 | United States | USA | Bronze | 8.309 | |
4 | DezsŠSzabó | 24 | Hungary | HUN | 8.199 | ||
5 | Rob Muzzio | 28 | United States | USA | 8.195 | ||
6 | Paul Meier | 20 | Germany | GER | 8.192 | ||
7 | William Motti | 27 | France | FRA | 8.164 | ||
8 | Ramil Ganiyev | 23 | Unified Team | EUN | 8.160 | ||
9 | Sten Ekberg | 27 | Sweden | SWE | 8.136 | ||
10 | Rob de Wit | 29 | Netherlands | NED | 8.109 | ||
11 | Gernot Kellermayr | 26 | Austria | AUT | 8.076 | ||
12 | Viktor Radchenko | 24 | Unified Team | EUN | 8.071 | ||
13 | Frank Müller | 24 | Germany | GER | 8.066 | ||
14 | Andrei Nazarov | 27 | Estonia | EST | 8.052 | ||
15 | Alain Blondel | 29 | France | FRA | 8.031 | ||
16 | Ãlvaro Burrell | 23 | Spain | ESP | 7.952 | ||
17 | Thorsten Dauth | 24 | Germany | GER | 7.951 | ||
18 | David Bigham | 21 | Great Britain | GBR | 7.754 | ||
19 | Dean Smith | 24 | Australia | AUS | 7.703 | ||
20 | Sándor Munkácsy | 23 | Hungary | HUN | 7.698 | ||
21 | Beat Gähwiler | 27 | Switzerland | SUI | 7.676 | ||
22 | Francisco Benet | 24 | Spain | ESP | 7.484 | ||
23 | Alper KasapoÄlu | 26 | Turkey | TUR | 7.205 | ||
24 | Albert Miller | 34 | Fiji | FIJ | 6.971 | ||
25 | Eric Momberger | 23 | Papua New Guinea | PNG | 6.780 | ||
26 | Homelo Vi | 24 | Tonga | TGA | 6.768 | ||
27 | Ibrahim Al-Matrooshi | 22 | United Arab Emirates | UAE | 6.124 | ||
28 | Jorge Flores | 20 | Honduras | HON | 5.746 | ||
AC | Erki Nool | 22 | Estonia | EST | DNF | ||
AC | Pedro da Silva Filho | 25 | Brazil | BRA | DNF | ||
AC | Aric Long | 22 | United States | USA | DNF | ||
AC | Mike Smith | 24 | Canada | CAN | DNF | ||
AC | Christian Plaziat | 28 | France | FRA | DNF | ||
AC | Eduard Hämäläinen | 23 | Unified Team | EUN | DNF | ||
AC | Petri Keskitalo | 25 | Finland | FIN | DNF | ||
AC | Simon Poelman | 29 | New Zealand | NZL | DNF |