Dan O'Brien Quotes

• As a young athlete, it was first about having fun; then it was about winning.

  Dan O'Brien

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• 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.

  Dan O'Brien

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• I think what my parents did was perfect. They were strict, concerned about my safety and held me back just a little.

  Dan O'Brien

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• As a young child, I was never a crier. I never cried to get my way, or even when I was in pain.

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• I call myself a chameleon.

  Dan O'Brien

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• 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.

  Dan O'Brien

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• It took me time to realize that the men who won Olympic gold medals in the decathlon are just men, just like me.

  Dan O'Brien

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• If you never give up, you’ll be successful.

  Dan O'Brien

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• It’s important for me to think I’m mixed-race.

  Dan O'Brien

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• Take pride in exactly what it is you do and remember it’s okay to fail as long as you don’t give up.

  Dan O'Brien

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• The decathlon includes ten separate events and they all matter. You can’t work on just one of them.

  Dan O'Brien

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  Tags in Matter, Events

• 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.

  Dan O'Brien

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

  Dan O'Brien

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• There is nothing better than having a personal-best day, being in shape and pushing myself beyond my own limits.

  Dan O'Brien

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  Tags in Best, Better

• When I was little, I wasn’t allowed to put sugar on my breakfast cereal because it made me so hyper.

  Dan O'Brien

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• 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.

  Dan O'Brien

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• 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.

  Dan O'Brien

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Dan O'Brien (17)

Birth:	18th July, 1966
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Athlete

About

Dan O'Brien is an American athlete. A decathlete, his 1990s achievements in the decathlon included the winning of an Olympic gold medal in 1996, and, previous to that, three consecutive titles at the World Championships in Athletics.

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Today's Anniversary - 21st November

Births

• 1958 - Rickson Gracie
• 1870 - Mary Johnston
• 1929 - Marilyn French
• 1971 - Michael Strahan
• 1989 - Rene Francois Ghislain Magritte

Deaths

• 1999 - Quentin Crisp
• 1958 - Mel Ott
• 1996 - Mohammad Abdus Salam
• 2000 - Sir Cyril Astley Clarke
• 1945 - Robert Benchley