Clearing Hurdles The Quest to Be the World's Greatest Athlete

Published on the 30th Anniversary of Dan O’Brien’s first attempt of Olympic Gold at the 1992 Olympic Games. Dan O’Brien would go on to win gold at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. For all the world’s great athletes, only one man, the Olympic Gold Medalist in the decathlon, is officially deemed the World’s Greatest Athlete. Since Jim Thorpe’s gold medal effort in the first modern decathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Games eleven more Americans have held this near mythical title and not a single one, from Bob Mathias to Bruce Jenner, has done it with as much flair or with a more gripping tale than Dan O’Brien. As an orphan who has never met his biological parents, as the subject of a timelessly infamous “Dan & Dave” advertising campaign, as the athlete of perhaps the most publicized and shocking failure in the history of sports, and as a man who persevered through it all to dominate his sport like few athletes ever have, it’s no wonder Track & Field News calls Dan’s life “stuff movies are made of.”