Michigan State’s Heath Baldwin to compete in the decathlon at the Paris Olympics
Heath Baldwin of Michigan State is traveling to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Baldwin, a graduate student from Kalamazoo, won the decathlon at the U.S. Track & Field Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., on Saturday night to secure a spot in Paris. He is the first Spartan to qualify for the Olympic decathlon since Paul Terek in 2004.
Baldwin, 23, who withdrew from the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships earlier this month to prepare for the Trials, scored a personal best of 8,625 points to finish first in the 19-person field. His score is sixth-best in the world this year and third-best all-time on the all-time college rankings.
His Olympic team includes 2020 Olympians Zach Ziemek (8,516 points, second place) and Harrison Williams (8,384, third place).
Baldwin started the decathlon on Friday morning and finished the first day of competition at the top of the leaderboard with 4,508 points. He set personal bests in the 400-meter dash (48.58) and shot put (16.52m), while he set a season-best 2.13m in the high jump, securing the top spot in the field in both the shot put and high jump.
With a performance of 13.77 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles, Baldwin was able to maintain his lead in the field on the second day of competition. In the discus (49.87 m), he set his third personal best of the competition, maintaining his 34-point lead over second-place Ziemek. Ziemek, who was in the lead after the first four events of the first day, took the lead again after eight events with a jump of 5.35 m in the pole vault, while Baldwin moved into second place with a jump of 4.85 m in that event.
The national title was decided in the final event after Baldwin threw 66.69m in the javelin. His throw, which earned 839 points, was 16 feet better than the runner-up in that event. Baldwin finished his historic weekend with a time of 4:41.87 in the 1500m, beating Ziemek’s 4:53.65 and claiming the gold medal.
MSU teammate Ryan Talbot competed alongside Baldwin in the decathlon, finishing in the top five four times en route to his season-best score of 7,872 points.
Former Spartan star runner Tori Franklin (2015) finished third in the triple jump with a leap of 13.72 m and is awaiting the announcement of the USA Track & Field Olympic team for this event. In 2022, she won bronze at the World Championships, becoming the first American woman to win a medal in the triple jump at a World Championship. No American woman has finished better than fourth in this event at the Olympics.
The athletics events at the Paris Olympic Games begin on August 1 and end on August 11.
— MSU Sports Communication
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