London's Damian Warner calls Olympic decathlon withdrawal his 'worst nightmare'

Canada's Damian Warner, left, competes in the men's 110m hurdles in the decathlon at the Paris Summer Olympics in Paris, France on Saturday, August 3, 2024. (Source: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette)

Four-time Olympian Damian Warner says withdrawing from the Olympic men's decathlon competition in Paris was like a "worst nightmare come true."

The 34-year-old from London, Ont., fell out of contention in the decathlon’s third-to-last event on Saturday when he failed to clear the bar on all his three attempts in the pole vault.

Warner says he warmed up well, but that a change in winds and a wrong choice of pole dashed his hopes of defending the gold medal he won in the event at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

"This one is going to hurt for a really long time because this is something that I really wanted to do, standing on top of that podium again for Canada," he said. "But unfortunately I wasn't able to do that."

Warner said he considered finishing the competition but decided to drop out because he felt that was the toughest decision to make for himself mentally, and the one most likely to help him grow.

"This may sound crazy, but that's the most painful thing to do, not finishing the decathlon," Warner said. "I pride myself on finishing decathlons but at the same time, I pride myself on being consistent."

Dropping out, he continued, "it's tough and it's really hard on me, but that gives me the best opportunity to grow because I don't want that feeling to happen again."

Warner was sitting in second with 6,428 points, 72 behind Germany's Leo Neugebauer, after seven events. After missing his pole vault attempts, he dropped to 18th with two events to go.

In hindsight, Warner said he regrets not switching to a smaller pole in the vault after his initial missed attempts, and just relied on "technique and timing and athleticism to just kind of force myself over the bar."

But that's all part of sports and especially the decathlon, which requires an athlete to be "perfect" over 10 events, he said. He said the experience makes him all the more appreciative of that gold in Tokyo when no mishaps occurred.

The Olympics can include not only the highest of highs but also the lowest of lows, and Warner said he's now felt both.

"I've been able to have tears of joy, but I've also had tears of pain, and one is way better than the other," he said. "But it's life. It's sport. It's going to happen."

Warner was looking to become just the fourth two-time Olympic gold medallist in the men's decathlon. He would have joined the elite company of American Bob Mathias (1948, 1952), Britain's Daley Thompson (1980, 1984) and American Ashton Eaton (2012, 2016).

Warner grew emotional when talking about his call to his wife Jen Cotton, with whom he shares three-year-old son Theo. He noted that being an athlete requires a lot of time on the road away from family, leaving his wife to pick up the lion's share of parenting their rambunctious toddler.

"You just spend so much time and energy on something that you want it to kind of show its rewards and its progress, but that's life," he said. "It doesn't always work out that way."

Warner is a two-time Olympic medallist and holds the fourth-best all-time mark with 9,018 points, an Olympic record he set in winning the Tokyo Games in 2021. He also has a bronze medal from Rio 2016.

He is also a four-time world championship medallist, having most recently won silver behind fellow Canadian Pierce LePage in Budapest, Hungary, last summer.

A back injury kept LePage from competing in Paris.

On Sunday, Warner acknowledged that after four Olympics, he's "closer to the end than the beginning," of his career.

But he said he hopes to learn from the experience and be better in the future, including at next year's world athletic championships in Japan.

"I still love the decathlon," he said. "I feel like I still have so much to improve on in the sport and I plan on doing this sport until that goes away."