61 Quotes by Dan O'Brien

Through everything I've gone through- and I've been everywhere, at the top of the world, in jail, hung over drunk - I never gave up my dream of winning a gold medal in the Olympics.

You need to become more than one type of athlete. You have to be a sprinter, a weight man and a distance guy all in one.

And there is such a thing as a decathlon high. It's like a rock rolling down hill, picking up momentum. You get better and better.

I've always had to have some kind of failure before I was successful.

It really means a lot that I won the gold medal - but I woke up the next morning expecting to feel different. I felt the same.

To me, the decathlon is its own little society and I am part of that culture.

I didn't get a ton of interest from colleges in baseball and football, but I was outstanding in track and had the sense that this would be my meal ticket... Track was a sport where I saw immediate improvement, and I had a lot of good support behind me... and the coaches had a lot of experience and pushed me in that direction for sure.

I got interested in decathlon because a coach that I had was a big fan of Bruce Jenner, and he just saw the ability in me - but when it came down to it, I knew my best chance at a college scholarship would be in track and field.

When first starting to work with someone you try to get them in the same mindset that you were in when you were successful, and I realized the best thing you can ever do is realize that they are not you. They have a different persona and mindset, and you have to figure out what works best within your communication with that athlete.