Ziemek ends U.S. decathlon medal drought with bronze medal at WCH Oregon22

Zach Ziemek’s comeback story reached its zenith Sunday when he ended the United States’ decathlon medal drought at major global championships. 

Ziemek finished with a personal best of 8,676 points over the two days of competition at the first World Athletics Championships held on U.S. soil to win the bronze medal at the reimagined Hayward Field at the University of Oregon. 

The United States hadn’t won a decathlon medal at a major global championship since Ashton Eaton won the gold medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. The last World Athletics Championships medal for the U.S. in the decathlon was a gold by Eaton at the 2015 Beijing Championships when he set the world record for the second time at 9,045 points. 

“That’s really freaking cool,” Ziemek said. “We have some great young talent here in the U.S., and I can’t wait for all of us to push each other more. The U.S. has always been a hard team to make so it’s going to be tough, but it makes us better.” 

World record-holder Kevin Mayer of France won the gold medal at WCH Oregon22 with 8,816 points after also winning at the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London, and taking the silver medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

Pierce LePage of Canada was second with a personal best of 8,701 points. Puerto Rico’s Ayden Owens-Delerme, who was the first-day leader, finished fourth with a national record of 8,532 points. 

Zemek was 15th in the 2015 World Athletics Championships and seventh in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He also competed at the 2017 World Athletics Championships, but did not finish that competition. In 2018, he was the U.S. champion and looking to make his third-straight World Athletics Championships team in 2019, but suffered a ruptured hamstring at the U.S. Championships and was out of action for 18 months. 

“We weren’t sure if I’d ever be back and compete again,” Ziemek said. “So, it was a lot of rehab, a lot of training. COVID gave me some time to get ready for the Olympics. Now I feel like I’m starting to get back to where I thought I was going to be a couple of years ago.” 

Ziemek was third last year at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field with a personal best of 8,471 points and finished sixth at the Tokyo Olympics with 8,435 points. In May, he qualified for the WCH Oregon22 when he finished third at the U.S. Combined Events Championships with another personal record, this time with 8,573 points. 

Ziemek moved into third place in the decathlon at WCH Oregon22 in the long jump, the second event of Saturday’s opening day of the decathlon, and was never out of the bronze medal position over the final nine events. He had a personal best of 15.37m in the shot put, the third event, and closed the first day in third place with 4,469 points and 16 points out of second place. 

On Sunday, he struggled in the discus, but on his last throw, he recorded a mark of 48.40m to keep himself in third place after seven events. 

“I had two throws that weren’t great for me and that third one wasn’t close to my best,” Ziemek said, “but it was tough to get through that and I was able to pull it out.” 

Ziemek moved into second place in the overall standings by five points over Mayer by clearing 5.40m in the pole vault. Mayer had a big javelin throw of 70.31m to take the overall lead with one event, the 1,500m left, but Ziemek basically wrapped up the bronze medal by throwing the javelin a personal-best 62.18m. He was in third place with a 189-point lead over the fourth-place person. 

“I would say pole vault absolutely helped me get into that (medal) position to see where I was at and everything,” Ziemek said, “and then I think javelin was the next one where then I knew I was in good position to run the 15(00).” 

In addition to the lifetime best, Ziemek’s 8,676-point total moved him into 10th place on the all-time U.S. list. 

“It is tough to do well at these meets, to have PRs at these meets," Ziemek said. “I’m really excited to PR here.” 

He was also excited not to have to compete until the final two days of competition, allowing him some time to watch how well Team USA was faring. Ziemek’s medal was one of 33 won by the U.S., the most ever by one country in a World Athletics Championships. 

“I had a lot of time watching and there were some amazing performances by the men and women, I know a lot of them, and it’s really cool to be a part of it,” he said. “I wanted to come in as late as possible to give myself a chance to try and PR and if that was a medal, it was and if it wasn’t, at least I tried." 

The other two Americans in the field were NCAA record-holder Kyle Garland, who scored 8,720 points for second place at the U.S. Combined Events Championships, and Steve Bastien, who was a late addition to the U.S. roster after U.S. champ Garrett Scantling, who scored a world-leading 8,867 points at the U.S. meet, was provisionally suspended for a whereabouts failure.