When Sander Skotheim failed to clear a height in the pole vault at last year’s Paris Olympics, it would have been understandable if he had packed up and gone home.
No height meant no points – and no chance of a decathlon medal. On his Olympic debut, the Norwegian had been sitting in third place after seven events, only to see his hopes unravel with three failures at his opening height of 4.50m.
Yet rather than wallow in disappointment, the European silver medallist from Roma 2024 dusted himself off and pressed on. He threw the javelin, then lined up for the final event, the 1500m, where he selflessly paced teammate Markus Rooth to gold.
The gesture earned him the International Fair Play Award at the 2024 World Athletics Awards.
“As a multi-eventer I love to compete, so despite my own disappointment I wanted to finish the decathlon and help Markus on his way to a gold for Norway,” Skotheim explained. “In the 1500m we made a plan to ensure Markus would win, and my role was to make his race as easy as possible.”
Record-breaking year
Fast-forward to 2025, and Skotheim has proved that nice guys can finish first.
He enjoyed a stunning indoor season, taking heptathlon gold at both the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships and the Nanjing 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships – the former in a new European record of 6558 points.
His form carried into the summer, when he triumphed at the prestigious Hypomeeting in Götzis with a Norwegian record of 8909 points, a mark that ranks him joint seventh on the world all-time list and fifth among Europeans.
With Rooth sidelined for the year after knee and elbow injuries – ironically sustained while training for the pole vault – Skotheim now heads to Tokyo as the clear favourite.
He has the chance to crown a perfect season and, after his selfless act in Paris, few would begrudge him that glory.
The World Athletics Championships decathlon begins in Tokyo on Saturday 20 September.