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Great Athletes

Roman Šebrle

by Jack Ewing

Sport: Track and field

Early Life

Roman Šebrle was born November 26, 1974, in Lanškroun, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). Athletically inclined as a youngster, he began playing soccer at the age of six. When he was thirteen, he suffered a severe lower-leg fracture in a collision during a soccer match. The injury required him to keep his leg in a plaster cast for two months. When he recovered, he spent a year strengthening his atrophied leg muscles and relearning to walk.

Roman Šebrle long jumping in the decathlon competition during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

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(Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Afterward, Roman concentrated more on noncontact sports. During his mid-teens, he specialized in high jump. This did not completely satisfy his athletic ambitions, and within a short time, he began to practice in other disciplines. He gravitated naturally toward multievent competitions. By his late teens, he was concentrating on the seven-event heptathlon—which includes the 60-meter dash, the long jump, the shot put, the high jump, the 60-meter hurdles, the pole vault, and the 1,000-meter run—and the grueling ten-event decathlon—which includes the 100-meter sprint, the long jump, the shot put, the high jump, the 400-meter run, the 110-meter hurdles, the discus, the pole vault, the javelin, and the 1,500-meter run.

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The Road to Excellence

In his hometown of Lanškroun, Roman attended the secondary school of František Martin Pelcl and competed in his first decathlon in 1991, scoring more than 5,100 points. He later transferred to the Gymnasium in Pardubice, where, in 1992, he improved his decathlon score to more than 7,600 points. After graduating high school in 1992, Roman enrolled as a part-time student in an extension course, studying information science and computer technology. In 1995, he began his two-year stint of compulsory service in the Czech army. He continued to train while serving and joined the army sports club in Prague.

In 1996, at a meet in Prague, Roman first exceeded 8,000 points in the decathlon. He later won the event at the World University Games and finished in ninth place in the decathlon at the World Track and Field Championships in Athens, Greece. In 1999, Roman captured his first medal in international competition, winning bronze in the heptathlon at the World Indoor Track and Field Championships.

The Emerging Champion

In 2000, Roman had a strong year. He took silver in the heptathlon at the European Indoor Championships in Athletics in Ghent, Belgium, and followed up with a silver medal in the decathlon at the 2000 Olympics, losing to Estonian Erki Nool. Late in the year, Roman married fellow Czech athlete Eva Kasalová. The couple had two children.

Roman’s performances on the track kept improving. In 2001, at a meet in Austria, he became the first athlete to break the 9,000-point barrier in decathlon as he set a world record with 9,026 points. He also set the world record for the decathlon long jump, soaring 8.11 meters (26 feet 7 inches). That same year, he won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Osaka, Japan.

In 2002, Roman was a double gold-medal winner: He took first in the decathlon at the European championships in Athletics in Munich, Germany, and first in the heptathlon at the European Indoor Championships in Athletics in Vienna, Austria. In 2003, Roman again medaled twice at major competitions: He took silver in the decathlon at the World Track and Field Championships in Paris, France, and bronze in the heptathlon at the World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Birmingham, England.

Those victories were tune-ups for the triumphs of 2004. At the World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Roman won his second gold medal in the heptathlon. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, he captured the decathlon gold medal. In the process, he broke Daley Thompson’s two-decades-old Olympic record, while totaling 8,893 points, to lay claim to the title of world’s greatest athlete.

Continuing the Story

After Roman’s Olympic victory, Roman continued to test himself against the world’s best athletes. In 2005, he again took gold in the heptathlon at the European Indoor Championships in Athletics in Madrid, Spain, and grabbed a silver medal in the decathlon at the World Track and Field Championships in Helsinki, Finland. The next year, he took third place in the heptathlon at the World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Moscow, Russia, and tallied his second European championship in decathlon.

Building toward a defense of his Olympic decathlon championship in 2008 at Beijing, China, Roman kept winning throughout 2007. He took his third gold medal in heptathlon at the European Indoor Championships in Athletics and a gold medal in the decathlon at the World Track and Field Championships.

Roman’s outstanding performance throughout the 2007 season was all the more astonishing, considering that in January of that year he had come close to death. While he was training in South Africa, a local female athlete hurled a javelin that, after arcing more than 150 feet, impaled Roman’s right shoulder, penetrating several inches. Miraculously, he was not killed. A few inches’ difference, and the tip of the javelin could have speared his heart or damaged a vital organ. The point pierced the skin but missed major muscles and blood vessels. The painful wound required many stitches and cost him some training time.

Whether it was the close brush with death, the aftereffects of the injury, the encroachment of advancing age, or the realization that he had nothing left to prove, Roman was unable to repeat as decathlon champion at the 2008 Olympics. He finished in sixth place, more than 500 points behind gold-medal-winner Bryan Clay of the United States.

Summary

A superb all-around athlete, Roman Šebrle captured every major international title in the multi-event heptathlon and decathlon, setting the world record in the latter competition while becoming first to break the 9,000-point barrier. He was three-time European indoor and two-time world indoor heptathlon champion. He also took European championships in the decathlon twice. He won the silver medal at the 2000 Olympics and the gold medal in 2004 to claim the title of the world’s greatest athlete.

Additional Sources

1 

Doherty, Ken, and John N. Kernan, eds. Track and Field Omnibook. Mountain View, Calif.: Tafnews Press, 2007.

2 

Page, Jason. Decathlon, High Jump, and Other Field Events. New York: Crabtree, 2008.

3 

Wallechinsky, David. The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics: 2008 Edition. London: Aurum Press, 2008.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Ewing, Jack. "Roman Šebrle." Great Athletes,Salem Press, 2009. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Athletes_2231.
APA 7th
Ewing, J. (2009). Roman Šebrle. Great Athletes. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Ewing, Jack. "Roman Šebrle." Great Athletes. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2009. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.