French athlete Kevin Mayer won the silver medal in the decathlon at the end of the 1,500m, after an incredible comeback.
He is preceded by the Canadian Damian Warner who becomes Olympic champion of the Tokyo Games.
Frenchman Kevin Mayer, world record holder and huge favorite in the decathlon of the Tokyo Olympics, had to settle for second place on Thursday, the title going for the first time to Canadian Damian Warner.
Mayer, handicapped by back pain, completed the Olympic decathlon with a total of 8,726 points behind Warner, the first man to exceed 9,000 points at the Games (9,018 points, 5th highest total in history).
Australian Ashley Moloney (8649 points) won the bronze medal.
Mayer thus offers the French athletics team its first medal in these Games.
A big disappointment for the French athlete
This is a big disappointment for the Frenchman (29), world record holder since 2018 (9126 points), who aimed to win in Tokyo the only major title missing from his record.
The 2017 world champion won silver at the Rio Olympics in 2016. This is his third consecutive failure in a major championship after his two withdrawals at Euro-2018 (after a zero lengthwise) and at the Worlds- 2019 in Doha (injury).
In difficulty at the end of the first five races contested on Wednesday (5th), Mayer, who said he had used anti-inflammatory drugs to relieve his back pain, gradually managed to make up part of his delay to hang on the podium, notably beating his personal best in the javelin (73.09 m).
The Canadian Damian Warner (31), third in Rio in 2016 and already triple medalist at the World Championships (silver in 2015, bronze in 2013 and 2019), has meanwhile confirmed his rise to power this season. He notably achieved the fifth highest total in history at the end of May in Gotzis (8995 points), before improving his personal best at the Tokyo Olympics.