Dan O'Brien at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo (© Getty Images)
During the World Athletics Championships Budapest 2023, USA’s Dan O’Brien, three-time world decathlon champion, presented his singlet and bib and bodysuit from his first global championship victory to MOWA, the Museum of World Athletics. The vest and competitor’s number he wore were from the 1991 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
The presentation was made on 22 August 2023, in Budapest, Hungary, as part of the MOWA collection donation ceremony at the MOWA Exhibition. Receiving the donation was World Athletics President Sebastian Coe.
Coe commented: “This collection would not look like it does today had it not been for the generosity of the athletes. They’ve donated everything, from shoes, clothing, trophies, equipment, magazines; we’ve even got training logs.”
“What we have in addition to the physical items is the online museum, which we can say with great pride was the first online 3D museum ever in the world of sport.”
O’Brien was effusive on the day of the presentation, saying: “I love that they’re putting this museum together. When I look back on my career, even more significant than an Olympic gold medal the World Championships were the events that shaped me the most.”
O’Brien was still an up-and-coming decathlete in 1988, the year of the last global championships before the Tokyo Worlds of ’91. He had yet to score 8000 points and the ’91 Worlds marked his international debut. Tallying 8812 points in Tokyo, the 25-year old O’Brien won the event by a massive 263 points.
O’Brien would go on to win the world championships in 1993 (Stuttgart, Germany) and 1995 (Gothenburg, Sweden), and followed those up with the gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, USA. He also captured the indoor heptathlon world championship in 1993 (Toronto, Canada) and set a decathlon world record of 8891 in 1992, as well as a heptathlon world record of 6476 in 1993.
12 consecutive decathlon wins
O’Brien’s combined events career began early as a Henley High School freshman in Klamath Falls, Oregon, in 1981. In the summer following his senior year, he scored 6873 at age 17 to finish 4th in the junior U.S. national championships (then The Athletics Congress, now USA Track & Field.)
Setbacks during his early college years held back his development until 1988, when he was reinvigorated and quickly improved to 7891, qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Trials.
The ’88 Trials, held in the sweltering heat of Indianapolis, Indiana, proved a disappointment as O’Brien withdrew after two events. An early April 7987 showed great promise for his senior year at the University of Idaho under coach Mike Keller. That one mark put him 14th on the U.S. decathlon list for the year, but an injury curtailed his season.
O’Brien began his post-collegiate career in 1990 under Keller and Washington State coach Rick Sloan. That year was the breakthrough with three meets, his lowest score of 8267 coming in late April. He followed that meet with scores of 8483(wind-aided) to finish 2nd at U.S. senior nationals, and 8358 for another 2nd, this one at the Goodwill Games in Seattle, Washington. Suddenly, O’Brien was the 2nd-ranked decathlete in the country, and ready for the first global championship meet of his career.
'World Championships even felt a little bit more special'
O’Brien’s World Championship campaign of 1991 began at the Penn Relays, where he was on pace to score about 8200 points but withdrew rather than running the 1500 metres. Seven weeks later he won the U.S. nationals with a wind-aided score of 8844, at the time the 2nd-best score ever behind Daley Thompson’s world record 8847. O’Brien entered Tokyo a strong favourite and won handily with an 8812 score, the 5th score in history. His 8844w score was the first year of seven when he would top the world list for the year.
The Olympic year of 1992 was the worst and best of O’Brien. A devastating no-height in the U.S. Olympic Trials pole vault cost him a place on the U.S. team going to Barcelona, Spain.
But in early September, O’Brien showed his mettle, winning the DecaStar in Talence, France, with a world record 8891. The victory was the first of 12 consecutive decathlon wins over a span of seven years as he closed his decathlon career in 1998.
Among the last 11 meets were his 2nd and 3rd World Championships tiltes in ’93 and ’95, the Olympic gold in ’96, four national championships, another DecaStar title, and a pair of wins at the Goodwill Games. His lowest score in that period was an 8682, with the exception of the 7891 score he registered while winning a 60-minute decathlon in 1995.
At the time of his final decathlon, O’Brien held the world record and five of the nine highest scores in history.
After the presentation, O’Brien said, “I mention the significance of the World Championships because at the Olympic Games there are people who don’t know track and field that are watching you. But at the World Championships it’s all your sport and you’re getting the attention from your peers. So, the World Championships even felt a little bit more special to me because of that.
“I’ll never forget my first one in Tokyo, I was ready for it and when it happened I was thrilled. And then I had to fight for the second one [winning by 93 points] and then the third one I started thinking about the Olympics in ‘96.”
O’Brien, one of the event’s all-time greats, capped the day, saying: “I’m just so honored to be in a museum with so many great past champions.”
Dave Johnson for World Athletics Heritage
