Athletics: Decathlete dies

Bob Mathias, a two-time Olympic champion in the decathlon and former United States congressman, died yesterday aged 75.

His brother said he had cancer.

Mathias became the youngest Olympic gold medallist in athletics in 1948 in London, when he won the decathlon at 17.

It was only his third decathlon, having qualified for the Olympics by winning two events in the US.

At the 1952 Helsinki Games, he became the first athlete to repeat as Olympic champion in the decathlon.