Dan O'Brien

“When I was little, I wasn't allowed to put sugar on my breakfast cereal because it made me so hyper.”

“The decathlon includes ten separate events and they all matter. You can't work on just one of them.”

“And there is such a thing as a decathlon high. It's like a rock rolling down hill, picking up momentum. You get better and better.”

“To me, the decathlon is its own little society and I am part of that culture.”

“It took me time to realize that the men who won Olympic gold medals in the decathlon are just men, just like me.”

“I got interested in decathlon because a coach that I had was a big fan of Bruce Jenner, and he just saw the ability in me - but when it came down to it, I knew my best chance at a college sc...”

“Breaking the world record in '92 was a very special personal moment, but I'd say my favorite moment as a decathlete was winning the Olympic gold medal. It was a lot of years of work, and whe...”

“You have to be able to be a good loser. You have to be okay knowing you're going to fail every day in something without getting mad and upset.”

“I was a good decathlete until I got with a coach that really knew how to train specifically for the event... I'd really describe it as like being a juggler; you have ten balls and you're try...”

“Breaking the world record in '92 was a very special personal moment, but I'd say my favorite moment as a decathlete was winning the Olympic gold medal.”

“You need to become more than one type of athlete. You have to be a sprinter, a weight man and a distance guy all in one.”