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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

O’Brien’s As Good As Gold World’s Greatest Athlete Convinces The Doubters

John Blanchette The Spokesman-Re

For four years, Dan O’Brien refused to let himself be defined by a single, crushing failure - just for the chance to be defined by a single, exhilarating triumph.

And what do you know? It worked.

The World’s Greatest Athlete. It’s what the king of Sweden dubbed Jim Thorpe in 1912 and what we’ve ceded to his heirs ever since, though first we make them prove it in this portable playhouse of high divers and horseback riders called the Olympic Games.

So even though Dan O’Brien starts his mornings with a hearty breakfast and session of mirror-mirror just for self-assurance, it wasn’t really so until he crossed the finish line at Olympic Stadium Thursday night.

Champion of the Olympic decathlon, O’Brien is finally what he claimed to be all along. The WGA.

“I’m tired, I’m numb and it hurts,” he said. “But it’s supposed to.”

Damn right. He has the rest of his life to feel great.

In holding off the surprising and relentless challenge of Germany’s Frank Busemann, O’Brien became the 10th American gold medalist in track’s 10-event obstacle course - and earned the right to live his life from this moment on instead of from the low points of his past, specifically not making the 1992 Olympic team in the hoohah of a national ad campaign which virtually guaranteed he would.

“I closed the door on ‘92 a long time ago,” O’Brien insisted, “but a lot of other people didn’t.”

So he closed it for them. Didn’t slam it, exactly, but it’ll stay closed.

He led this decathlon, the 27th of his life, from the third event on - yet could never completely shake Busemann, an innocent of 21 who in the alleged pressure of the Games came through with lifetime bests in six events.

Only when O’Brien came up with his only personal record of the competition - a last javelin throw of 219 feet, 6 inches - was the issue settled, though he still had to finish within 32 seconds of the German in the concluding 1,500 meters. An unlikely closing sprint kept the margin less than 15.

“I knew I had it won two laps into the race,” said O’Brien, “and I couldn’t help but smile.”

Smile? During the race he despises?

“The pain was still there, but I was smiling,” he insisted.

The smiles came easier beyond the finish line. After blowing a giant kiss to the crowd of 82,884, O’Brien dropped to one knee in exhaustion - then rose to find his father, Jim, and coaches Mike Keller and Rick Sloan in the stands.

Then somebody tossed him an American flag and the rest was video.

“This was probably the hardest two days of his life,” offered Dave Johnson, the other half of Reebok’s 1992 ad campaign and the bronze medalist in Barcelona. “The stage, the pressure - all of it was greater because of what happened in 1992, no matter how focused he was on the present.

“And what people don’t realize is that he was probably at his best back in 1992 - the best I’ve seen him. I’m really proud of the way he’s battled and competed like a veteran here, even when his performances weren’t always at the level they were a couple of years ago.”

It’s hard to think of Dan O’Brien as the dean of the decathlon, but there you have it. At 30, he was the oldest of the top seven finishers here - and the oldest of those 10 American champions.

He was always the kid who wouldn’t grow up, both prodigy and prodigal - Keller’s hellion with a heart of gold. It was always easier to mention his old sins and not research his recent sacrifices.

And for all his admitted fragility, he has not lost a decathlon since his ‘92 disaster - and may have had his steadiest performance of all Thursday, when he ended up with 8,824 points.

No, it wasn’t a world record. For that, O’Brien would have had to run the 1,500 in 4:35 “and I thought about it,” he said, “for about a lap and a half.”

But because he didn’t blow the record out of the water, to all but his tight knot of supporters in the stands he became an intriguing subplot to an evening that saw sprinter Michael Johnson rip a huge hunk out of the world record for 200 meters.

O’Brien - who had just finished throwing the javelin - was among the first to reach Johnson at the finish line, and later interrupted his own victory lap to congratulate the Texas tornado again after the 200 medal ceremony.

Then somebody asked if Johnson, not O’Brien, should be considered the world’s greatest athlete.

“I don’t think Michael could pole vault 16-5 or throw the shot 51 feet,” O’Brien said, smiling. “I’ll give Michael the title of world’s fastest man and sharpest dresser.

“But I took this title from Bruce Jenner and (defending champion) Robert Zmelik and all the other guys who’ve held it. Now it’s my turn.”

Not just for four years, but forever. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

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