by Larry Eder
Brianne Theisen-Eaton, Ashton Eaton, A Day in the Life, April 2013, photo by Doug Pensinger /Getty Images for IAAF
Ashton Eaton is the Greatest Athlete in the World. That moniker dates back to the 1912 Olympics, when the King of Sweden, upon meeting Jim Thorpe, who had won both the pentathlon and decathlon at said Olympics, noted that Mr. Thorpe was surely the World’s Greatest athlete.
Well, we now have proof. In light of all the super hero movies, I now nominate Ashton Eaton. Case in point. On Saturday, in the Long Jump, Ashton Eaton was hit by a stray pole vault cross bar, which struck his head. The results, after blood and a mess, was six stitches.
Per Ashton’s coach, the colorful Harry Marra, whose job it is to make sure Ashton and Brianne are relatively healthy, told Eurosport, after his superstar was sporting six stitches, “all good”. Marra, a fine coach, and a man who has considerable prowess with the English language, gave, in my mind his shortest retort to any question asked him in the past three decades that I have known the maison grise of decathlon coaches.
The good news is that Ashton Eaton is fine. He should be ready for the Combined Events this coming weekend at Portland 2016.
If you would like to read the story on Eaton from Eurosport, then click here: http://www.eurosport.co.uk/athletics/freakish-injury-will-not-slow-eaton-s-world-title-bid_sto5316343/story.shtml
