Olympic decathlon gold medalist Markus Rooth of Norway will miss next month’s World Track and Field Championships after landing outside the pole vault mat in practice.
Rooth, 23, posted that he injured his knee and elbow and will undergo surgery this week.
“Excited to get back as soon as possible,” he posted.
Last August, Rooth became the third-youngest man to win an Olympic decathlon after American Bob Mathias (1948, 1952) and Brit Daley Thompson (1980).
He totaled 8,796 points in Paris, beating his previous personal best of 8,608.
The World Championships decathlon in Tokyo will also be without Kevin Mayer of France, who holds the world record of 9,126 points. Mayer is sidelined by a left thigh injury that also kept him out of a home Olympics in Paris in 2024.
The world’s top decathlon scores in 2025 were recorded by Norwegian Sander Skotheim (8,909) and American Kyle Garland (8,869).
The last American to win a global title in the decathlon, which crowns the world’s best all-around male athlete, was Ashton Eaton, who won all four Olympic and world titles from 2012 through 2016.
