Dan O Brien

You can't blame Dan O'Brien or Rafer Johnson for being bothered by some of the questions they're being asked at the U.S. Olympic Festival. After all, they are two of the United States' most honored athletes. O'Brien is the world-record holder in the decathlon and, a generation ago, America beamed as Johnson won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1960 Olympic Games, making him only the fourth U.S. Olympic decathlon champion since the modern Games started in 1896.

Ever wonder what happens to the World's Greatest Athlete after he wins the Olympic decathlon gold medal? Dan O'Brien, 1996 Olympic champion, has moved on to eclipsing new heights in . . . hopscotch. This week, O'Brien set the world hopscotch record, according to Guinness World Records, by completing a game in 1:21.63 at Chelsea Piers in New York City. Which answers the question: Do they keep speed records for games of hopscotch? Less clear: Why?

Dan O'Brien is the leader in the clubhouse, but that's where the comparison ends. After all, nobody ever pretended that the leader after Thursday's round at the Lovely Willow Country Club was trying to become the world's greatest athlete. This is the decathlon, and after Wednesday's first half at Olympic Stadium here, O'Brien is nicely atop the leaderboard. This is also an American tradition, and all the apple pie is one day away from the eating for this resident of Moscow.

Dan O'Brien, the defending Olympic champion in the decathlon and one of track and field's biggest names over the last decade, said Tuesday he plans to withdraw from the U.S. Olympic trials in Sacramento and will miss the Sydney Games. O'Brien, 34, said he partially tore connective tissue on the bottom of his left foot while practicing the high jump last Wednesday. He said he wouldn't formally withdraw until just before the competition begins. "I'm 98, 99% out right now," he said.

The sleekly efficient Reebok marketing machine, which brought us the Dan & Dave Show, coughed and sputtered briefly Saturday at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. Half of its engine, world champion decathlete Dan O'Brien, pulled over and broke down in the pole vault. "Dan-Dave. Who is the world's greatest athlete? To be settled in Barcelona." Suddenly, a six-month, $25-million advertising campaign had lost its premise.

Creating heroes before their time is risky business, but that hasn't stopped a shoe company from making "Dan and Dave" household names before the first starter's shot has been fired this summer in Barcelona. A bit presumptuous? Hey, when the competition has Michael Jordan under contract, you'd better think fast on your feet.

Dan O'Brien, the 1991 world decathlon champion and a favorite at Barcelona in '92, will run the 50-meter hurdles--one of his strongest events--in the Sunkist Invitational at the Los Angeles Sports Arena on Feb. 15. O'Brien, of Moscow, Ida., set an American record of 8,812 points in Tokyo last summer. Britain's Daley Thompson holds the world record of 8,847.

The rift in the Dan & Dave Decathlon Show, which first showed up when Dan O'Brien no-heighted at the Olympic trials in New Orleans, widened into a gulf Friday when Johnson's wife, taking offense at remarks attributed to Dan O'Brien, criticized him for "unfortunate, even un-American" behavior. "I usually don't say anything, but I want to publicly condemn what Dan O'Brien said on a TripleCast network show the other night," Sherry Johnson said at a post-event news conference with her husband.

Dave, it is. The question--Dan O'Brien or Dave Johnson?--that Madison Avenue's advertising experts told us would be settled at Barcelona was answered prematurely during the U.S. Olympic track and field trials Saturday, when O'Brien failed to qualify for the team in the decathlon. The result was at least as stunning as Carl Lewis' sixth-place finish one week earlier in the 100 meters, perhaps even more so because O'Brien seemed to be in command of the competition.

That sound you heard coming out of the Olympic track and field trials in New Orleans over the weekend was not the crossbar hitting the ground after Dan O'Brien rapped into it twice (and went under it the third time), it was the sound of contracts ripping and money burning in the cloisters of Madison Avenue. It was probably the costliest "no height" in track and field history. Upward of $25 million in shoe ads went up in smoke.

Olympic buffs who are also semi-serious or very serious exercisers will get the most out of this slim paperback volume by O'Brien. He won the 1996 Olympic gold in the decathlon, the first American winner in this sport in 20 years, and is the world-record holder. After a foreword explaining the history of the grueling decathlon, the book highlights how O'Brien, adopted and brought up in Klamath Falls, Ore.

It was a dream deferred for Dan O'Brien and it arrived in the customary manner of the 10-event decathlon: running through the pain of memory and ignoring the pressure of expectations. Thursday night O'Brien earned the title of world's greatest athlete--which he was ordained to win along with the Olympic gold in 1992. But he didn't make the U.S. Olympic team and the gold medal he earned here was born out of that failure.

Dan O'Brien is the leader in the clubhouse, but that's where the comparison ends. After all, nobody ever pretended that the leader after Thursday's round at the Lovely Willow Country Club was trying to become the world's greatest athlete. This is the decathlon, and after Wednesday's first half at Olympic Stadium here, O'Brien is nicely atop the leaderboard. This is also an American tradition, and all the apple pie is one day away from the eating for this resident of Moscow.

A $25-million advertising campaign, "Dan or Dave?" "Dave or Dan?" got flushed into the Madison Avenue sewers four years ago when Dan O'Brien, unable to clear the bar once in the pole-vault portion of the decathlon, did not qualify with Dave Johnson for the Barcelona Olympics. Somewhere in shoe world, Reebok wept. By succeeding on his first jump here Saturday and beginning an ascent higher and higher, O'Brien could feel his 15 minutes of fame getting an extension.

You can't blame Dan O'Brien or Rafer Johnson for being bothered by some of the questions they're being asked at the U.S. Olympic Festival. After all, they are two of the United States' most honored athletes. O'Brien is the world-record holder in the decathlon and, a generation ago, America beamed as Johnson won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1960 Olympic Games, making him only the fourth U.S. Olympic decathlon champion since the modern Games started in 1896.

The sun was out in full force. The crowd was not. Feeling too much heat and not enough inspiration, Dan O'Brien figured Thursday that he would settle for a credible performance instead of an incredible one in the Goodwill Games decathlon competition. "After the first two events, I was thinking, 'No world record. I'm just going to go steady and win this thing,' " he said. "But when I was high jumping, I said, 'Hey, I can get back in this thing.'

Thursday, former German decathlete Juergen Hingsen, a commentator for German television during the Games, dropped by Reebok headquarters in Barcelona to see Dan O'Brien, the 1991 world champion in the 10-event grind, who failed to qualify for the U.S. team. Later in the day, the world record-holder, Great Britain's Daley Thompson, a commentator for the British Broadcasting Corp., called to arrange an interview Friday with O'Brien.

Dan O'Brien, whose career was sidetracked when he failed to qualify for the Barcelona Olympics, hit misfortune again Saturday when he no-heighted in the high jump in the Stockholm International decathlon competition. "Don't count me out. I'll be back," said O'Brien, who missed an Olympic trip when he failed to clear the bar in the pole vault during the U.S. Olympic trials.

Just when it seemed possible that consumers would be allowed to forget Dan and Dave, the dueling decathletes began appearing on television again earlier this month in a nationwide advertising campaign for a truck rental company. Unfortunately for track and field followers, the only place the two can be seen together is in commercials.

Dan finally did it. Dan O'Brien, whose rivalry with Dave Johnson was one of the summer's biggest failings, rebounded Saturday by breaking the world record in the decathlon. The reigning world champion had four personal-best performances on his way to scoring 8,891 points, bettering Daley Thompson's mark set at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles by 44 points. O'Brien became the first American to hold the record since Bruce Jenner in 1976.