Medal count by country in the Men's Decathlon at the Summer Olympics 1912-2016

The Men's Decathlon has been held at all Summer Olympic Games since 1912, and athletes from the United States have had the most success in this event. US athletes have won 14 golds in 24 events, and a total of 29 overall medals. Three athletes have won two gold medals in this event, they were the US' Bob Mathias in 1948 and 1952, Britain's Daley Thompson in 1980 and 1984, and the current champion, Ashton Eaton of the US in 2012 and 2016. Popular TV personality Caitlyn Jenner is also a notable past-winner of this event, taking the gold medal in 1976 under her former name, Bruce Jenner. The winner of this event is granted the unofficial title of "World's Greatest Athlete"; a title that was first bestowed by King Gustav V of Sweden upon the US' Jim Thorpe when presenting him with the gold medal in Stockholm in 1912.

In addition to being the first gold medallist in this event, Jim Thorpe was also the only athlete to ever have been stripped of a medal in this event. Thorpe was found to have taken a professional baseball contract in the past, which went against the Olympics' strict amateurism rules at the time. He was subsequently stripped of all Olympic medals, although many have suggested that there was a racial element to this case, due to Thorpe's Native American ancestry and the lengths which the IOC went to strip him of his medal. Thorpe's medals were reinstated and eventually returned to his family in 1983, thirty years after his death. The other medals, however, were not redistributed and Thorpe shares the gold medal with Sweden's Hugo Wieslander; whose lower score is still the official score used today.