CrossFit Games Athletes vs. Olympic Decathletes
Decathletes often receive the title of "World’s Greatest Athlete" because the decathlon is considered the only objective test of all-around athletic ability. Decathletes must demonstrate strength, endurance, agility, speed, stamina, and mental and emotional acuity. Reading this, those unfamiliar with CrossFit’s definition of fitness may also think a decathlete could win the CrossFit Games.
CrossFit defines fitness as work capacity across broad time and modal domains. This means CrossFit athletes strive to accomplish high levels of work across all different time domains (from seconds to hours), with any task or combination of tasks asked of them at any moment. Decathletes are incredibly gifted and very fit, too. However, the nature of their 10-event competition, which dictates their training, results in a narrower fitness that inevitably has deficiencies in areas that would be exposed at the CrossFit Games.