Words matter. These are the best Dan O’Brien Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
As athletes, we’re defined by what we’ve accomplished. Those are what most people remember and what you get paid for. But I learned more from my failures than from all of my successes put together – failures as an athlete and as a person.
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.
Try everything, because you’re never sure what you’re going to be great at.
Take pride in exactly what it is you do and remember it’s okay to fail as long as you don’t give up.
As a young athlete, it was first about having fun; then it was about winning.
The decathlon includes ten separate events and they all matter. You can’t work on just one of them.
I was playing little league baseball when Bruce Jenner was winning the gold but I don’t think I was really paying attention at that time.
As a young child, I was never a crier. I never cried to get my way, or even when I was in pain.
It took me time to realize that the men who won Olympic gold medals in the decathlon are just men, just like me.
To me, the decathlon is its own little society and I am part of that culture.
I think what my parents did was perfect. They were strict, concerned about my safety and held me back just a little.
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.
I was a good decathlete until I got with a coach that really knew how to train specifically for the event… I’d really describe it as like being a juggler; you have ten balls and you’re trying to get them all in the air at the same time.
It’s important for me to think I’m mixed-race.
Nowadays, to be a good world-ranked decathlete, you need to be good at everything.
When I was little, I wasn’t allowed to put sugar on my breakfast cereal because it made me so hyper.
I just love playing so much, competing so much. You’re able to put your losses behind you. One of the greatest attributes a decathlete can have is the ability to forget… to look ahead, not behind.
When my world record got broken in 1999, it hurt a little bit, to say the least. But I was in a leg brace at the time and I had just had knee surgery and I couldn’t do anything about it.
Breaking the world record in ’92 was a very special personal moment, but I’d say my favorite moment as a decathlete was winning the Olympic gold medal.
Breaking the world record in ’92 was a very special personal moment, but I’d say my favorite moment as a decathlete was winning the Olympic gold medal. It was a lot of years of work, and when I won it, it was more a sense of relief than jubilation or exaltation.
After the failure in ’92, my goal was to be a good pole vaulter. I used that as motivation.
I’ve always had to have some kind of failure before I was successful.
If you never give up, you’ll be successful.
You have to be able to be a good loser. You have to be okay knowing you’re going to fail every day in something without getting mad and upset.
I call myself a chameleon.
