Combined events
How are track and field athletes ranked in the Olympics
Track and field
Combined (or multi-discipline) events are competitions in which athletes participate in a number of track and field events, earning points for their performance in each event, which adds to a total points score. Outdoors, the most common combined events are the men's decathlon and the women's heptathlon. Due to stadium limitations, indoor combined events competition have a reduced number of events, resulting in the men's heptathlon and the women's pentathlon. Athletes are allocated points based on an international-standard points scoring system, such as the decathlon scoring table. The Ancient Olympic pentathlon (comprising long jump, javelin, discus, the "stadion" race and wrestling) was a precursor to the track and field combined events and this ancient event was restored at the 1906 Summer Olympics (Intercalated Games). A men's decathlon was held at the 1904 Summer Olympics, albeit contested between five American and two British athletes.