Mayer To Miss 2025 Decathlon Championships In Tokyo

World decathlon record holder Kevin Mayer has confirmed that he will miss the 2025 season due to a troublesome hamstring injury.
The double world champion said the injury had affected him mentally, and physically while expressing regret that he will be unable to defend his title in Tokyo.
He said:“It’s my first blank season, the first year that I won’t be wearing the French team colours.
“I’ve had some really bad injuries in my career but this is the most serious so it’s going to take more time. And I have no doubt that it will heal.”
Mayer, who also won Olympic silver medals at the 2016 and 2020 Games, said he was “playing his last hand” in choosing to halt his training for the 10-event decathlon to concentrate on specific strengthening exercises.
The Frenchman, who set the world record of 9,126 points in 2018, has been dogged by injuries in the past two years.
He was forced to drop out of the 2023 world championships in Budapest after feeling pain in his Achilles tendon after the 100m.
Then his hopes of performing in front of a home crowd at the 2024 Paris Olympics were crushed when he injured his hamstring in a 110m hurdles race at the Paris Diamond League meeting just weeks before the Games.
Mayer said he was still hopeful of competing at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
He said: “We all have our cross to bear. Mine is my physical state. I know very well that if I sort out the problem, I can go on for a very, very long time.
The 33-year-old set the world record decathlon score of 9,126 points in 2018. He also won Olympic silver medals in Rio and Tokyo, plus won world titles in 2017 and 2022.
The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of 10 track and field events.
Events are held over two consecutive days, and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all.
Performance is judged on a points system in each event, not by the position achieved.
The decathlon is contested mainly by male athletes, while female athletes typically compete in the heptathlon.
The 2025 World Athletics Championships will be the 20th edition of the World Athletics Championships, and is scheduled to be held from 13 to 21 September 2025 in Tokyo.
Mayer To Miss 2025 Decathlon Championships In Tokyo is first published on The Whistler Newspaper