The Men’s decathlon competition at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada, was held at the Olympic Stadium on 29–30 July. The decathlon consists of ten track and field events, with a points system that awards higher scores for better results in each of the ten components. The athletes all compete in one competition with no elimination rounds. At the end of competition, if two athletes are tied, the athlete who has received more points in the greater number of events is the winner. Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows:
World record Bruce Jenner (USA) 8538 Eugene, Oregon, United States 26 June 1976 Olympic record Mykola Avilov (URS) 8466 Munich, West Germany 8 September 1972