COMMENTARY : O’Brien Lays Claim to the Title of the World’s Greatest Athlete

NEW YORK —  It’s Dan.

It was not settled at Barcelona as advertised. It was not settled in a head-to-head confrontation with Dave as expected.

It was settled at Talence, France, last month when Dan O’Brien broke the world decathlon record, beating Dave Johnson to the mark.

It also was settled Wednesday when O’Brien was named winner of the Tanqueray Amateur Athletic Achievement Award.

In an Olympic year, when world records were broken and miraculous achievements accomplished at the Barcelona and Albertville Games, not only by American athletes but also by those from throughout the world, O’Brien was honored for excellence in amateur athletics.

Like the Summer Olympics, where the unexpected became the expected, especially in track and field, O’Brien had an unpredictable year.

At the U.S. Olympic Trials in June at New Orleans, where he went in as the prohibitive favorite and a strong possibility to break the world record of 8,847 points set by Britain’s Daley Thompson at the 1984 Olympics, he did not make the team after failing to clear a height in the pole vault.

“At the start of the trials, I saw Carl Lewis not make it in the 100 meters,” O’Brien said Wednesday. “I said that wouldn’t happen to me. But it did happen.

“I can second-guess myself. After warmups, I sat around for about an hour before I took my first jump. Then I jumped at 4.80 (meters--15 feet, 9 inches). I wasn’t warmed up. And I was mentally fatigued. That hurt--that and the heat.”

He also blamed inexperience. Since blossoming into an elite decathlete in 1990, that was only his fifth competition.

A month later, at a meet in Stockholm, during another record attempt prior to the Olympics, O’Brien failed to finish because of an injury.

Then, on the first weekend in September, the determined O’Brien, in at attempt to surpass the winning Olympic score of 8,611 by Robert Zmelik of Czechoslovakia, shattered the world record by 44 points with a total of 8,891.

This time, he entered the pole vault at 15-1, cleared on his second attempt, and went on to become the first American to hold the world record since Bruce Jenner in 1976.

“Before, I used to say the world’s greatest athlete was Daley Thompson,” O’Brien said. “Now I have to say myself.”

That title generally is reserved for the Olympic decathlon gold medalist. But since O’Brien surpassed Zmelik’s Olympic total and broke the world record, he rightfully deserves the title.

Now O’Brien has his sights set on two more marks--9,000 points in the decathlon and the world record in the indoor heptathlon. He will take a shot at the heptathlon record of 6,418 points held by France’s Christian Plaziat at the World Indoor Championships at Toronto in March.

He also has several individual event goals in the decathlon.

“I hope to be an 18-foot pole vaulter,” he said. “I hope to long jump 27 feet. I want to run 10.1 (seconds) in the 100, and I hope to break the 400-meter record.”

O’Brien said he had no qualms about the heavy Reebok advertising campaign early this year featuring he and Johnson that asked the question, “Who is the world’s greatest athlete?” and concluded with “To be settled in Barcelona.”

“I would definitely do them again,” he said of the commercials. “It gave the sport recognition. It gave the decathlon recognition.

“That’s what the kids need. If they see there is some money in the sport, they will try it. Now they’re playing baseball, basketball and football.”

It was ironic that O’Brien became the first American to hold the world record since Jenner. It was Jenner who was indirectly responsible for O’Brien becoming a decathlete. When Jenner won the Olympic gold medal 16 years ago, O’Brien’s father Jim admired his athletic skills and pointed them out to his son.

Asked Wednesday what he would do when he retires from competition, the 26-year-old quipped: “I always said I wanted to be like Bruce Jenner and talk about the record the rest of my life.”