Doha (AFP)

The combined events will cram the world's most complete athletes Thursday at the Doha World Athletics Championships after two days of effort. Out of ten events for men and only seven for women, the 20th century's old heritage apparently not close to disappearing.

"I would love women to do the decathlon," says world record holder Kevin Mayer, "I do not understand the current situation, I'm totally convinced that they can do it and very well."

The world champion puts his finger on an incongruity: the decathlon remains the last discipline of athletics reserved for men.

Evolving rather slowly, however, the Olympic sport N.1 has gradually opened all doors that were closed for no reason to women: the hammer and perch (since 1999 at the Worlds), the 3,000 m steeple (2005) and the 50 km walk (2017). But not the decathlon.

In 2001, the Congress of the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) endorsed in Edmonton (Canada) the decision to add a women's decathlon, on the recommendations of a committee of experts (coaches, athletes ...). It was 18 years ago and nothing has changed.

- "Incredibly hard" -

The discipline exists, with an official world record (8,358 points achieved in 2004 by the Lithuanian Austra Skujyte, double Olympic medalist on the heptathlon), but was never considered in a big championship.

A few enthusiasts have tried it well: the Dynamic Aulnay Club, in Aulnay-sous-Bois (93), organizes some editions of the "decamix", a decathlon for men and women, but abandons in early 2010. In the United States, the "Women's Decathlon Association" campaigns for the discipline and organizes an annual championship.

Canada's Brianne Theisen-Eaton, a two-time world vice champion and Olympic bronze medalist in the heptathlon, is in favor of the women's decathlon. But warns that it will not be easy.

"In my youth, during a university meeting, I participated in the 4x100 m, I chained with the weight, the length, the height and finally the 4x400 m, she tells AFP. , I assured my coach that I could not run the next day! He replied: + Congratulations Brienne, you just finished the first day of a decathlon + (laughs).

"Then I realized that the decathlon is completely different from the heptathlon, it's incredibly hard, mentally particular, if the heptathlon was changed, it will require a completely different workout."

In a corporatist reflex, the most ardent defenders of the status quo are often the heptathletes themselves, who are afraid of ending up with nothing overnight, for lack of knowing how to jump on the pole, for example.

"I can understand this desire to pass the decathlon for women, but I would be sad to see the heptathlon disappear, says the Belgian Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam.For many people, to go from seven to ten tests would be an improvement For me it would be just a different discipline. "

- A gradual change -

One point, however, is consensus: a hypothetical change should not be brutal but thought over the medium term, leaving time for young categories to gradually form the specificities of the decathlon (which adds the boom, the record, a race and extension the 800m in 1,500m), before proposing a world or Olympic women's decathlon.

But there is still a pitfall: the official version of the female decathlon includes a different order of events (the weight, height and length are on the 2nd day instead of the first). This idea of ​​the IAAF, planned to facilitate the organization of two decathlons at the same time on the same stage, makes the experts squeak. It radically changes the approach of the discipline by repelling explosive events on the 2nd day, when the champions are blunt.

"It's the only thing that matters to me, that the order is the same as for the boys, explains to the AFP the double Olympic champion (2012 and 2016) American Ashton Eaton.Of course it would be complicated to organize for Logistical reasons, but frankly, nothing needs to be done, girls must be able to do exactly the same thing, otherwise it's useless. "

A wish that will remain only hypothesis, as long as the IAAF does not seize the subject.

© 2019 AFP