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
thinking perfect safety
I think what my parents did was perfect. They were strict, concerned about my safety and held me back just a little.
baseball winning thinking
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.
thinking race important
It's important for me to think I'm mixed-race.
morning mean gold
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.
hype cereal breakfast
When I was little, I wasn't allowed to put sugar on my breakfast cereal because it made me so hyper.
knowing mad upset
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.
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.
single-life scissors knows
I always know where the scissors are.
divorce single-life cost
You know why divorce costs so much? Because it is worth it!
pain children way
As a young child, I was never a crier. I never cried to get my way, or even when I was in pain.
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.
fun athlete winning
As a young athlete, it was first about having fun; then it was about winning.
writing winter house
You can only look forward to a South Dakota winter if, as with childbirth, remodeling a house, or writing a novel, you're able to forget how bad it was the last time.
motivational athlete men
It took me time to realize that the men who won Olympic gold medals in the decathlon are just men, just like me.