I was playing little league baseball when Bruce Jenner was winning the gold, but I don't think I was really paying attention at that time. It wasn't until 1980 - I think I was 12 years old - that I thought, 'Wow that's what I want to do. I want to be on the Olympic team.'
— Dan O'Brien
After the failure in '92, my goal was to be a good pole vaulter. I used that as motivation.
I just love playing so much, competing so much. You're able to put your losses behind you. One of the greatest attributes a decathlete can have is the ability to forget... to look ahead, not behind.
When first starting to work with someone you try to get them in the same mindset that you were in when you were successful, and I realized the best thing you can ever do is realize that they are not you. They have a different persona and mindset, and you have to figure out what works best within your communication with that athlete.
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 scholarship would be in track and field.
It really means a lot that I won the gold medal - but I woke up the next morning expecting to feel different. I felt the same.
To me, the decathlon is its own little society and I am part of that culture.
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.
The decathlon includes ten separate events and they all matter. You can't work on just one of them.
I think what my parents did was perfect. They were strict, concerned about my safety and held me back just a little.
As a young child, I was never a crier. I never cried to get my way, or even when I was in pain.
When my world record got broken in 1999, it hurt a little bit, to say the least. But I was in a leg brace at the time and I had just had knee surgery and I couldn't do anything about it.
Nowadays, to be a good world-ranked decathlete, you need to be good at everything.
I've always had to have some kind of failure before I was successful.
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.
Try everything, because you're never sure what you're going to be great at.
It took me time to realize that the men who won Olympic gold medals in the decathlon are just men, just like me.
I call myself a chameleon.
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.
As a young athlete, it was first about having fun; then it was about winning.
Take pride in exactly what it is you do and remember it's okay to fail as long as you don't give up.
Through everything I've gone through- and I've been everywhere, at the top of the world, in jail, hung over drunk - I never gave up my dream of winning a gold medal in the Olympics.
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 when I won it, it was more a sense of relief than jubilation or exaltation.
I didn't get a ton of interest from colleges in baseball and football, but I was outstanding in track and had the sense that this would be my meal ticket... Track was a sport where I saw immediate improvement, and I had a lot of good support behind me... and the coaches had a lot of experience and pushed me in that direction for sure.
As athletes, we're defined by what we've accomplished. Those are what most people remember and what you get paid for. But I learned more from my failures than from all of my successes put together - failures as an athlete and as a person.
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 trying to get them all in the air at the same time.
I was playing little league baseball when Bruce Jenner was winning the gold but I don't think I was really paying attention at that time.
It's important for me to think I'm mixed-race.
There is nothing better than having a personal-best day, being in shape and pushing myself beyond my own limits.
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.
When I was little, I wasn't allowed to put sugar on my breakfast cereal because it made me so hyper.
If you never give up, you'll be successful.
