Men's decathlon at the 1979 Pan American Games
Venue	Estadio Sixto Escobar
Dates	12 & 13 July
Winning result	8078
Medalists
Bobby Coffman   United States   Tito Steiner   Argentina   Zenon Smiechowski   Canada
«1975 1983»

Athletics at the 1979 Pan American Games
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
3000 m		women
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeplechase	men
4×100 m relay	men	women
4×400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Javelin throw	men	women
Combined events
Pentathlon		women
Decathlon	men
v t e

The men's decathlon competition of the athletics events at the 1979 Pan American Games took place on 12 and 13 July at the Estadio Sixto Escobar.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Pan American Games records were as follows:

World record	Bruce Jenner (USA)	8634	Montreal, Canada	July 30, 1976
Pan American Games record	Bruce Jenner (USA)	8045	Mexico City, Mexico	October 1975

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	100m	LJ	SP	HJ	400m	110m H	DT	PV	JT	1500m	Points	Notes
	Bobby Coffman	United States	10.61	7.05	15.63	1.94	49.11	13.96w	47.10	4.20	52.04	4:42.1	8078	GR
	Tito Steiner	Argentina	11.28w	7.27	14.64	1.91	50.31	15.56w	44.04	4.60	57.50	4:53.0	7638
	Zenon Smiechowski	Canada	11.26w	6.80	14.37	1.97	52.33	16.28w	42.80	3.80	61.68	5:00.7	7337
4	Roberto Steinmetz	Argentina	11.75w	6.61	12.80	1.91	53.12	16.12w	40.60	4.40	52.92	4:38.9	7021
5	Roberto McFarlane	Costa Rica	11.05	6.83	11.44	1.82	50.37	16.01w	30.00	3.70	48.16	4:46.6	6669
	Rigoberto Salazar	Cuba	11.09	7.32	14.72	1.97	51.11	14.71w	46.14	?	–	–	DNF
	Paulo Lima	Brazil	11.02	6.85	11.85	1.94	48.72	16.14	35.40	?	–	–	DNF	[7]
	Dave Steen	Canada	11.34	7.18	11.15	2.03	50.78	16.03w	34.50	?	DNS	–	DNF
	Alfredo Silva	Chile	11.55	6.55	11.94	1.91	52.52	16.19	35.40	?	?	–	DNF
	Pedro Burgos	Puerto Rico	11.43	6.47	12.02	NM	53.76	17.34	37.08	?	?	–	DNF
	John Mascoll	Barbados	11.10	7.06	12.91	1.73	?	–	–	–	–	–	DNF
	Renato Bortolocci	Brazil	11.14	5.84	11.84	?	?	–	–	–	–	–	DNF	[7]
	John Crist	United States	DNS	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	DNS
	Juan Ríos	Venezuela	DNS	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	DNS