Together Dan O'Brien and the decathlon have shared a gold medal
(at the 1996 Olympics), three world championships and a
six-year-old world record that still stands. Yet they have never
been good friends. "Every competition has scared me to death,"
says O'Brien. "I love training, but competing is another thing
altogether." He won the unofficial title of world's greatest
athlete in Atlanta, but a year later he was dumped by his shoe
sponsor, Nike, whose representatives told him that the company
that invented creative athletic packaging couldn't figure out how
to market the greatest decathlete in history. In all, O'Brien's
career has been fabulously successful—but a little less than
fulfilling.
O'Brien (high jumping) flirted with a world record in his
first decathlon since '96.
(Bill Frakes)
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O'Brien's performance at this week's Goodwill Games in New York,
however, was one of the major surprises of the season. After
missing all of 1997 with assorted injuries and evoking suspicion
that he was finished, he scored 8,755 points, his sixth-best
total ever, to win the first decathlon that he has entered since
Atlanta.
Although at 32 O'Brien may be near the end of his career, he's
clearly not packing up. "I'm going to stick around until they
throw me out," he says. "I want another world championship and I
want another Olympic gold medal."
He might just get it, and join Bob Mathias (1948, '52) and Daley
Thompson ('80, '84) as the only repeat Olympic decathlon
winners. In oppressive heat and blustery winds at the Goodwill
Games on Monday, O'Brien overhauled 28-year-old U.S. champion
Chris Huffins with a spectacular second day in which he set a
decathlon personal best in the 110-meter hurdles (13.67 seconds)
and equaled his best in the pole vault (17' 3/4"). His score
through nine events, 8,245 points, was the best in history.
Huffins scored a respectable 8,576 points. Like O'Brien, the
6'2", 190-pound Huffins is fast and explosive. He is such a
gifted athlete that the Oakland Raiders have invited him for a
tryout five times. He has declined, saying, "Football isn't a
good sport to play if your heart isn't in it." Besides, he has a
rivalry to deal with, the decathlon's first since Dan and Dave in
'92.
Issue date: July 27, 1998
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