German giant Leo Neugebauer bags second NCAA decathlon title: 'Crazy progression'
A year ago at the NCAA Track & Field Championships, Leo Neugebauer told Olympics.com, "The sky's the limit."
Can we now say he's close to flying?
The University of Texas senior scored a college record 8961 points to claim his second consecutive NCAA title. The score, which ranks sixth all-time, signalled the German's readiness for next month's Olympic Games Paris 2024
"He's sending out a notice," said Atlanta 1996 decathlon champion Dan O'Brien on ESPN.
"It's unbelievable," a breathless Neugebauer told ESPN after his win.
The 23-year-old was fifth at the World Championships a year ago in Budapest, but his 8961 points in Eugene, Oregon, on Thursday would have claimed the world title last August.
"I feel great to go back to work," Neugebauer said when asked about Paris. Then added, simply: "[I'm going] to go back to work in like a week or two. So I'm excited."
Leo Neugebauer on NCAA title: 'You have to earn it every single day'
Neugebauer sat on the side of the track, leaning on a chair after the decathlon 1500m, the tenth of ten events, and soaked it all in. He had broken his own collegiate record.
It marked the first time in his career that he wouldn't be splitting his focus between college and the professional ranks.
"It's been a crazy way... just like my progression," he said of his career at Texas. "It's been like a slow process, especially the last two years. I really put in a lot of work, a lot every single day... You have to earn it every single day. And that's what I did."
It's a quick transition for Neugebauer now to ready himself for Paris, but it's a process he appears ready for, with his score at NCAA some 200 points clear of Ayden Owens-Delerme's previous world lead of 8732.
"I can't even describe doing that here," he said, referencing his score. "I had so much fun being also my last meet in college."
Leo Neugebauer: Setting new heights for Germany
Neugebauer began athletics at age six, growing up in Stuttgart, Germany. He said the German program in the sport was perfectly suited for him: Youngsters start off with three events, then five and seven, finding out where they excel exactly before picking their individual events.
Leo was good – at all of them.
“I was just always pretty good at everything a little bit, and it wasn't really worth it for me to focus on one single event,” he told Olympics.com in 2023. “So I kept doing everything and then [transitioned to] full decathlon; I was getting better and better. Yeah, that's my story.”
His collegiate win over rival Kyle Garland last year came with a new NCAA record and a German national one, too, breaking a nearly 40-year-old mark set by Jürgen Hingsen in 1984.
Hingsen reached out to congratulate Neugebauer after the win: “He was very happy for me,” Neugebauer said. “I read an interview where he was talking about how he thinks its great for Germany that young people are coming to get these records; it’s good for track and field.”