O'Brien
psyched for trials
Bert Rosenthal (AP)
14 July 2000 – Sacramento, California - In the early 1990s, the decathlon was one of track and field's most popular events. The Dan and Dave Show - Dan O'Brien versus Dave Johnson - captivated the United States because of a vigorous advertising campaign.
In recent years, the big sponsor - VISA - has disappeared, and so has the event's popularity.
O'Brien is ready to start a renaissance.
Having had surgery on his left knee for tendinitis last July, O'Brien still is recovering from the injury that was caused by overuse. But he has recuperated well enough so that he can compete in the U.S. Olympic trials, which were to begin Friday at Sacramento State.
"I'm not 100 percent," he said, "but I'll be at the trials, and I'll go to the Olympic Games and be ready for (Tomas) Dvorak (the world record-holder from the Czech Republic)."
Dvorak took the world record from O'Brien last July. He scored 8,994 points, so close to the 9,000 mark that O'Brien made his goal for years, but which no decathlete has yet attained.
O'Brien is oozing confidence even though he has not completed a decathlon since winning at the 1998 Goodwill Games, his only multievent competition since winning the Olympic four years ago.
"I was convinced the surgery would make me right again," he said, "but I didn't think it would be that big a deal."
He thought he would miss only a few weeks, but those weeks turned into nearly a year. He didn't return until the Modesto Relays in April, and after the competition, the knee flared up again.
O'Brien backed off until last month's Grand Prix meet at California's Stanford University, and although he finished last in both the 110 metre hurdles and long jump - against specialists in those events - he was encouraged.
"My leg was strong, my knee didn't hurt," he said.
If O'Brien gets to the Olympics and is fit, he thinks the gold medal will come down to him and Dvorak, with the final event, the 1500 metres, the deciding factor. That race always has been O'Brien's weakest of the 10 events and often has cost him a shot at the elusive 9,000-point total.
"I know I've got it in me," O'Brien said of the possibility of winning the trials and then a second straight Olympic gold.
"I don't want to go into the trials to get second or third. I want to win."
