Jim Thorpe made the decathlon a major event.
Bob Mathias, Bob Richards, Rafer Johnson, Bill Toomey, and Bruce Jenner added to the lore.
Now, Dan O'Brien has come to the forefront.
Champions of the grueling, ten-event decathlon competition have a legitimate claim to the title of best athlete in the world. And no man today has a better stake on that claim than Dan O'Brien.
On August 1, 1996, Dan become the first American to win a gold medal in the decathlon since Bruce Jenner in 1976. His 8,824 points also set an Olympic record, improving on Daley Thompson's 8,798 points in 1984.
Dan's gold medal is only the last in a long string of achievements. He has dominated the decathlon in the 1990s. He won World Championships in 1991, 1993, and 1995. One of his greatest achievements came in 1992 at Talence, France, when Dan set a world record with a score of 8,891 points. In topping the previous world record set by Daley Thompson of Great Britain in the 1984 Olympics, Dan became the first American to hold the world decathlon record since 1976--a record Dan still holds today.
In addition to his decathlon records, O'Brien also holds the world record in the indoor heptathlon and the world's best score in the indoor pentathlon. Dan is the first man ever to concurrently hold world bests in all three competitions.
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| 100 Meters | 10.43 | 992 | Long Jump | 26'6 1/4" | 8.08 | 1079 | Shot Put | 54'9 1/4" | 16.69 | 894 | High Jump | 6'9 1/2" | 2.07 | 868 | 400 Meters | 48.51 | 885 | 110 Meter Hurdles | 13.98 | 977 | Discus | 159'4" | 48.58 | 841 | Pole Vault | 16'4 3/4" | 5.00 | 910 | Javelin | 205'4" | 62.58 | 777 | 1500 Meters | 4:42.10 | 668 |
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