More on Kip Janvrin, the third member of the U.S. decathlon team:
His first decathlon was in 1983, as a junior at Panora-Linden
High School in Iowa. He scored 6,165, using h-s implements. His first
time over 7,000 was in 1986, his sophomore year at Simpson College,
also in Iowa. He won three NCAA Div III championships while at
Simpson.
Of the 60 decathlons he has completed since then, he has
never failed to score at least 7,000 points. In the past 12 seasons,
the only times he has scored fewer than 7,500 points were in Ostrava,
in 1993 and 1994, when he scored 7,433 and 7,121. Both were one-hour
events.
He recorded his lifetime best, of 8,462, in the US-Germany
dual in Edwardsville, Ill., in July 1996, at the age of 31. He is now
35. Of the 60 meets where he has scored at least 7,000 points, 24
were above 8,000. Dan O'Brien has broken 8,000 16 times.
He has never won the national championship, but instead often
has finished 4th, such as 1997 and 1999, when World Championships
teams were selected, and 1996, when the Olympic team was selected,
and 1998. This year, if O'Brien had competed in the Olympic Trials
and defeated him, he would have been 4th again.
This season he competed again for the K&K Track Club, after
Visa dropped its sponsorship. Right out of Simpson, he also competed
for K&K. You may not have heard of it, because it is named for his
parents, Ken and Karen. His father, Ken, was his coach at
Panora-Linden.
He has won the Drake Relays decathlon 11 times, including
this season, and in fact has already been named to the Drake Hall of
Fame, although he still competes. (Do they charge him an entry fee?)
He has also won the Olympic Festival and the Pan-Am Games.
The last time he failed to complete a decathlon was at the
1991 Drake Relays. Since then he has finished 40 in a row -- 3 in
1991, 3 in '92, 6 in '93, 6 in '94, 5 in '95, 4 in '96, 3 in '97, 3
in '98, 3 in '99 and 4 so far this year.
He relies on consistency for his score. He is a mediocre
highjumper, often struggling at 6-2, but has an outstanding 1,500.
His lifetime bests in the decathlon events are 10.61, 739, 1482, 204,
47.57, 14.48, 4744, 530, 6278, 4:09.07.
(He is 6-0, 185 pounds, and was born July 8, 1965.)
JP
