Is decathlon star Ashton Eaton wearing a superhero mask around the Olympic track?

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:13 p.m. ET

Chris Chase

We'll get to the why in a bit. First let's look at the who: That's American decathlete, reigning gold medalist and world-record holder, Ashton Eaton, jogging around the Rio track on Wednesday.

What: He's wearing a mask on his head that makes him look like a mix between Captain America, Bane, Darth Vadar and some other superheroes I'm sure the nerdier faction of Fox Sports will breathlessly tell me about before going back to watching the Doctor Strange trailer for the 125th time.

When: These pictures were taken in between the second and third events of this week's two-day, 10 event decathlon. I can only assume he had been breathing heavily, putting his fingers inside the hooks of his tank top and using a deep voice to call Oleksiy Kasyanov "Mr. Wayne."

Where: Gotham, I assume.

Why: Yes, why indeed. Why does the man who is a near lock to win the event that used to identify the "world's greatest athlete," but is now better known as the one Bruce Jenner won in 1976, look like he's about to fight crime and/or say something that'll result in a witty rejoinder by Robert Downey Jr.?

Is it part of an elaborate backstory like Thor's hammer, Spider-Man's science class mishap or Ryan Lochte's weekend nights? Is it to disguise him in some perfunctory way? (Like nobody would really realize that Ben Affleck's chin. Come on.) No, it's actully a piece of equipment used to help Eaton defend his gold.

The prototype doesn't yet have a name (weird, Nike names everything; I once bought a jacket that had more abbreviations than a stock ticker) but is a cooling hood. How it works is pretty neat but at it's essence it's exactly what it sounds like: a hood that cools.

Eaton helped Nike develop the hood, which is to say he told them that pouring water on his head felt good and then Nike engineers set out to replicate that refreshing, but awkward, experience that indeed cools you down but at the expense of your shirt getting too wet, sweat getting in your eyes and then you looking like a fool when you go into the clubhouse bar for a 19th hole hotdog and beer looking like you'd just been pushed into a pool. (Just me?) Anyway, it had to help on Wednesday, when temperatures on the track at Rio were hovering around 100 degrees.

Nike says that the face is two-to-five times more sensitive to heat than other parts of the body which is why cold water on your dome feels so delightful. After that, the team built the hood which "concentrates a cold mass out of an icebox, covering the face, head and neck, and allows a gradual and effective cooling of the head," according to Sandy Bodecker, Nike's VP of Special Projects.

The hood isn't for sale yet, but I figure that if you stick this Batman mask in the freezer for a night it'll have the same effect.