Written by Trackandmemes, June 20, 2021
My name is Makenson Gletty, I am 22 years old and I have been doing decathlon for 5 years now. I train at the CREPS (Centre de Ressources, d'Expertise et de Performance Sportive d'Île-de-France). As soon as I started the decathlon, I did the European championships in cadet where I finished 5th. Then I did the European Championships in Italy in junior 1, and then in junior 2 the World Championships. In hope 1, I had the opportunity to do the European championships.
The combined events include 10 disciplines for men and 7 for women. At what point in your life did you say to yourself that not to choose, but to take everything would be the ideal discipline?
I love to run fast. Besides that, I used to throw the shot put, discus and javelin. I was also doing the long jump. I swam a little in the combined events, without really having it as an official discipline. And one day, with my coach, we said that I was going to do a decathlon and I really liked it.
For does your typical training week look like?
On Monday I do sprinting, followed by throwing. I also have weight training... You can't fit all the disciplines into one week! Sometimes we take a discipline out in week 1 and put it back in the program for week 2, for example.
Some readers wondered... Should you take marks before the competition starts, like in jumping for example?
No. Except for the javelin. For discus and shot put, it's not necessary, because you're in a circle where you can't put a mark.
From your experience, what do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of this discipline which represents all the varieties of athletics?
The advantage is that the program is varied. The sessions always change so you never do the same thing, and that's good. I used to do a lot of sprinting, a lot of throwing, and now I wanted something else, something more diverse.
And in competition, the duration of your events lasts two days in total. How do you manage this physical and mental load during these two days?
The training sessions serve to support the physical and mental aspects of the competition. In training, we are already in a process of linking events. We also train to concentrate quickly in the next discipline, forgetting the one that has just ended. The competition may seem daunting to outsiders, but there is a lot of work that has gone into it, so that you can string everything together.
In winter, we saw you make a new personal record with a total of 7978 points at the meeting. incredible. What does this performance mean to you?
This performance triggered something in me. I tell myself that it is possible that I will go beyond the 8000 points, that I will get the minimum for the Olympic Games. And there are events where I struggled a bit, but I say to myself "Wow... I still managed to do this result".
What are your goals for this outdoor season?
This season, my goal will be to have a lot of fun. In Reunion, I had so much fun that I got a good result... I'm going to have fun and we'll see how it goes. Then, two weeks later, there will be the French Elite Championships. And after that, possibly the European Championships in Norway.
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