Dan O'Brien
Dan O'Brien
American decathlete who won an Olympic Gold medal in 1996, as well as titles at the World Championships in Athletics.
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDecathlete
Date of Birth18 July 1966
CityPortland, OR
CountryUnited States of America
defined failures learned paid people successes
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.
chameleon
I call myself a chameleon.
fun athlete winning
As a young athlete, it was first about having fun; then it was about winning.
rocks get-better rolling
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.
single-life scissors knows
I always know where the scissors are.
dream winning jail
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.
hang overcome perseverance
The only way to overcome is to hang in.