TheDecathlon's  Instablog

The search for Wall Street’s best all-around athlete is under way.

The Decathlon, a 10-event charity competition scheduled for Oct. 22 at Columbia University in New York, opened full registration this morning on its website.

Jay McCareins, who played football at Princeton Universityand had a brief stint with the National Football League’s Arizona Cardinals, will be among the traders, bankers and financial advisers vying for the unofficial title of Wall Street’s top athlete while raising money for New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

“In past athletic endeavors, I’ve always found myself to be one of the top-tier athletes, so I have expectations,”McCareins, in his fourth year as an energy analyst for the George Weiss Associates Inc. hedge fund, said in a telephone interview. “But being in a field where I don’t know the competitors and in some events I don’t feel comfortable with, it’s going to make it a little more difficult for me to be as confident as I usually would be.”

McCareins, 28, pre-registered for the Decathlon along with about a dozen other select competitors including the event’s past two champions, a former Ivy League shot-put champion, an All-American wrestler from Harvard University and a former soccer captain at Villanova University.

Organizers said there’s room for 200 participants this year and awards will be presented to the top executive, top fund-raiser and winners in various age groups.

“We have a greater diversity within the field of competitors,” Decathlon co-founder Dave Maloney, a former financial adviser at Morgan Stanley, said in a telephone interview. “We want to be able to recognize an executive who is putting on a heck of an athletic performance and not compare that to the young analyst who’s 20 years his junior.”

The competition features runs at three distances -- 40 yards, 400 meters and 800 meters. That’s where its similarity to the Olympic decathlon ends.

Pull-ups, a football throw, an agility drill, rowing, vertical jump and bench press are also part of the one-day contest at Columbia University’s Wien Stadium.

McCareins, whose older brother Justin spent four of hiseight NFL seasons with the New York Jets as a wide receiver, said he’s looking forward to the variety of events. The younger McCareins was a cornerback at Princeton and led the nation with nine interceptions as a senior in 2005.

“I can still throw a football reasonably well, but I’ve never really rowed before, so a 500-meter row is going to be a new challenge,” said McCareins, who lives in White Plains, New York, with his wife, Nicole, and 5-month-old daughter, Jayden.“That’s part of the excitement. You’re doing things for a very good cause, but it’s another way to find a new motivation to train while I have to worry about work and a family.”

The competition came down to the final event in 2010, when Chris Schlack, an analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co., fought through a stomach virus to win the title. Schlack said he spent time as a personal trainer and kick-boxing teacher at a gym in Hoboken,New Jersey, outside his job in the alternate investments group for Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit.

Schlack will defend his title, and 2009 winner Kyle Peterson, 25, an associate at Sageview Capital LP, is also in the field. Justin Nunez, 27, of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) played football at Columbia and returns to his alma mater after finishing third last year.

Gerald Donini, 47, who is head of equities and trading in the Americas for Barclays Capital, is participating for the first time. A member of the company’s six-member executive board, Donini was an Ivy League shot-put champion at Brown University and still holds the school record in the event.

Other competitors include Brian Williams, 33, of Jefferies Group Inc. (JEF), who was Villanova’s soccer captain in 2000; Connor Hackett, 23, of Collins Stewart Plc (CLST), who last year was football captain at St. Lawrence University; and Max Meltzer, 26, of the Meltzer Group, who finished eighth at the college wrestling championships for Harvard in 2007.

Prospective competitors must work in the financial services industry and raise a minimum of $3,000 in donations. The event raised $225,000 last year.

Donors can promise a fixed amount per repetition -- $10 per pull-up, for example -- and the Decathlon also features performance-based pledging. Organizers said the second option allows donors to “wager” on a competitor’s performance, harnessing Wall Street’s trading culture.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

NEW YORK, Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Beginning today, bankers, traders, advisors and analysts move rivalries from conference rooms and trading floors to the athletic arena as registration opens for The Decathlon - an athletic competition crowning "Wall Street's Best Athlete."

Competitors from the world of high finance will converge on New York City on Sunday, October 10th to compete in 10 athletic events testing speed, power, endurance, and agility, while raising money to benefit LIVESTRONG - the Lance Armstrong Foundation, an organization founded by cancer survivor and 7-time Tour de France champion cyclist Lance Armstrong.

"Thanks in large part to our partnership with LIVESTRONG, this year's event is poised to be hugely successful and competitive," notes The Decathlon's co-creator, Marc Hodulich, whose mother is a breast cancer survivor and an inspiration behind the event. "I'm anxious to see some incredible athletic and fundraising performances, especially given our unique donation format which should definitely catch any savvy investor's interest."

The Decathlon (http://www.TheDecathlon.org) utilizes a performance-based pledging format which encourages competitors to tailor their training regimens to maximize donations. Last year's leading fundraiser, John Withrow of Macquarie Group, concentrated on his strength which proved enticing to donors who pledged various amounts for each successful repetition in the "dips" competition. The former NCAA All-American wrestler at the University of Pittsburgh completed 66 reps to win that event.    

Included in The Decathlon are events like the 400-meter run, football throw, 40-yard dash, pull-ups, and body weight bench press. Participants are required to raise a minimum of $3,000 in order to compete.

"We are delighted that The Decathlon has joined the LIVESTRONG movement to reduce the global burden of cancer," said Phil Hills, LIVESTRONG Executive Vice President. "We have found an ambitious and committed partner and are grateful for their support."

"This event holds a special place in my heart," notes 2009 winner Kyle Peterson of Sageview Capital. "My father, who has been the biggest inspiration in my life, is currently battling cancer. I look forward to competing again this year to raise even more awareness and money for this worthy cause."

In its inaugural year, The Decathlon ranked among LIVESTRONG's highest-grossing 2009 grassroots fundraisers, raising more than $140,000 for the fight against cancer. This year, The Decathlon aims to shatter its previous record and earn a reputation as LIVESTRONG's preeminent fundraising event.

"I'm confident that our competitors will rise to the occasion and make The Decathlon a fundraiser that serves as a benchmark for the financial services and non-profit communities," added Hodulich.  

For information on corporate sponsorships, contact Dave Maloney at (201) 926-1559 or dave@thedecathlon.org.  

By Erik Matuszewski

Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The competition in financial services will intensify tomorrow when a charity event aims to crown the best athlete on Wall Street.

The Decathlon pits 30 traders, bankers and advisers in a competition designed to test their athleticism and raise at least $250,000 for Lance Armstrong’sLivestrong Foundation. It has drawn side wagers, in the form of donations, from such firms as Bank of America Corp.,Morgan Stanley, UBS AG, Citigroup Inc., ING and Credit Suisse Group.

“That’s just the way trading floors work, you find things to bet on, or compete at against other guys,” said John Withrow, a 33-year-old bond trader at Macquarie Group Ltd., Australia’s biggest investment bank, who was a three-time All- American wrestler at the University of Pittsburgh. “I’m a little bit crazy competitive.”

While Withrow has dropped 20 pounds during training trying to regain the form that led him to wrestle for U.S. national teams in Russia, South Korea, Italy and Macedonia, he’s not sure what to expect from the 10-event competition.

This version of the decathlon features track staples such as sprints at three different distances along with basketball free-throw shooting, a football throw for distance and accuracy, pull-ups, an agility drill and bench press. Five events will be held at New York’s East River Park and five more at the Reebok Sports Club on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Wall Street’s Best

“We bill it as a chance to anoint Wall Street’s best athlete because we do test speed, endurance, power as well as other skills,” event founder Dave Maloney, 30, said in a telephone interview. “The big investment banks and hedge funds, all the major players are all represented.”

Maloney, a former financial adviser at Morgan Stanley, which reported its first profit in a year this week, who now sells computer systems, created the Decathlon to help raise money for a cause with which he has a personal connection. His mother is a breast cancer survivor, and his mentor at Morgan Stanley, Donald Wolfson, died of leukemia.

LiveStrong is the organization founded by Armstrong, who won a record seven Tour de France cycling races after recovering from cancer. It has raised more than $250 million to help people with cancer since its inception in 1997.

Using his Wall Street connections, Maloney began reaching out to financial firms for participants.

Personal Tests

Among the competitors is Evan Odin, a 29-year-old credit trader at Citigroup, the lender that’s 34 percent owned by the U.S. government, who fought in Wall Street charity boxing events the past two years and won both of his matches.

“When you get older and you’re not able to do that every single day, anything that comes up, especially that tests your capabilities against other guys of the same mindset, is just an opportunity you just have to jump at,” said the 6-foot, 195- pound Odin, who played soccer at the University of Wisconsin.

Maloney is a Decathlon competitor as well as an organizer. He’s a former track athlete who ran the 800 meters and mile at Auburn University in Alabama.

As a former wrestler, the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Withrow figures he doesn’t have much of a chance in the track events -- “I run like a herd of elephants” -- so he focused on an area of strength to earn pledges that might exceed $25,000.

Withrow said he’s confident he can win the dip competition, in which participants hold onto two bars at waist level with their arms extended and then lower their full body weight before pushing up again. He’s aiming to do 45.

Dips for Dough

“People have made it fun by making the craziest equation they could to see how many dips I could do,” Withrow said. “If I can win that competition, those last couple dips could be worth thousands of dollars because so many people have put in.”

The Decathlon offers a new philanthropic outlet for finance professionals outside the usual galas and golf outings. Peter Hofbauer, former chief operating officer at Trafelet Capital Management LP, is among those wagering on the outcome of events in the form of a donation.

“Rather than cutting a check for a lump sum, it raises the stakes both for the competitors and donors,” Hofbauer said. “It’s more entertaining for me as a donor because I know some of the participants and they’re competitive.”

And this weekend, that competition goes from trading floor to athletic fields.

“It’s been an opportunity to get in shape, help a great cause and get my competitive juices flowing,” Withrow said. “All of those things are good.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net