The decathlon is a track-and-field event that purportedly produces the World’s Greatest Athlete — a title currently held by Ashton Eaton, the reigning Olympic champion and world record holder. Last Saturday morning at the Westmont College track, the decathlon training of Tom FitzSimons Jr. helped him become the World’s Greatest High Fiver.
FitzSimons was also assisted by the 339 people with whose raised hands he connected during a 60-second lap around the track. That number, verified by a slow-motion camera (near misses didn’t count), far exceeds the Guinness World Record of 260 high fives in 60 seconds recorded last year by Florida insurance executive J. Powell Brown.
“It’s hard to get Santa Barbara to turn out for anything,” a woman said in amazement at the crowd. They included FitzSimons’s Santa Barbara Track Club teammates; Westmont runners and baseball players; children and parents from the track club’s youth program; and curious onlookers.