Canada's Damian Warner competes in the men's decathlon pole vault of the athletics event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on August 3, 2024.BEN STANSALL/Getty Images
In Paris on Saturday, Damian Warner was in striking distance of repeating as Olympic decathlon champion, until it fell through his fingers during the pole-vault event.
Warner was sitting in second place beginning the eighth of ten events, just 72 points behind Germany’s Leo Neugebauer, when the plot twist happened. That’s when the Tokyo Olympic champion suffered a huge misstep in the pole vault, and it pushed him out of medal contention.
Now, the Canadian has decided not to continue the competition.
Just as the decathlon was set to resume Saturday night in Paris with the final two events, the Canadian Olympic Committee issued a press release saying Warner had withdrawn from the event. It added that he would not be coming through the mixed zone to speak with reporters this evening. He’s expected to speak at another time.
“Damian and his team are devastated,” continued the statement.
Warner’s opening height in the vault proved too challenging for him on Saturday afternoon – 4.60 metres. He had achieved that and higher before – 4.80 earlier this season, and 4.90 when he earned gold in Tokyo.
But on Saturday in Paris, Warner knocked down the bar on three attempts at 4.60, resulting in zero points in that event. The man sitting in third, Norwegian Sander Skotheim did not record a height in that event either, shaking up the top of the leaderboard. It was costly for both, Skotheim plummeting to 19th, and Warner to 18th in the field of 21 men – deficits too large to overcome that late in the decathlon.
Warner remained on his back on the mat for a long while after his third miss. The 34-year-old four-time Olympian put his hands to his head in disbelief. A giant of decathlon, and one of Canada’s best bets for a medal in Paris, was going to leave the Games empty-handed.
Damian Warner of Canada reacts after a failed attempt at the men's decathlon pole vault event on Aug. 3, 2024.Aleksandra Szmigiel/Reuters
There are only three decathletes who have won back-to-back Olympic gold medals, and Warner hoped to join that elite group: American Bob Mathias (1948, 1952), Britain’s Daley Thompson (1980, 1984) and American Ashton Eaton (2012, 2016).
Warner had begun Day 2 of the decathlon in fourth place, confident that he could rally back. It was a different scenario than he faced in Tokyo, when he had led the competition from the first event to the last, earning gold with an Olympic record 9,018 points. But the veteran decathlete was up for the challenge.
He had filed away the regrets from Friday’s Day 1 – a lousy performance in the shotput and running out of gas in the last 50 metres of the 400. Warner came out hot to start Day 2, winning the 110-metre hurdles, his best event, in 13.62 seconds. That had catapulted him from fourth place into the top spot.
But then Germany’s Leo Neugebauer pulled into first place with a solid discus performance, and it appeared that the two might be neck and neck the rest of the way. But that all came to a halt after Warner’s falter in the pole vault.
Neugebauer was one of five men to record heights of more than five metres in the pole vault. With Warner out of reach now, the race is on to crown a new Olympic champion when the event continues tonight with javelin and 1500 metres.
Neugebauer lead at the afternoon break in Paris with 7,410 points. He ended up winning silver, with Markus Rooth of Norway taking gold and Lindon Victor of Grenada earning bronze.
Canada had the top two decathletes for these Games but neither will be on the podium. World champion Pierce LePage did not come to Paris due to a back injury.
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