Word: decathloners
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This was not the way the script was supposed to turn out. Dave Johnson and Dan O'Brien, the rival U.S. decathlon stars who have been battling for three years to see who would capture the "world's greatest athlete" laurels in Barcelona, last week met on a rain-soaked track at Azusa Pacific University outside Los Angeles to film a hastily rewritten Reebok shoe ad. As they waited for the cameras to roll, their conversation remained on emotionally safe subjects like new golf clubs. There was no discussion of O'Brien's memorable miss in the pole vault...
...Olympic veteran, the 29-year-old Johnson had battle-tested nerves. O'Brien did not. "I've walked this road for a decade," explains Johnson. "I expect what comes along." Bruce Jenner, the 1976 decathlon gold medalist and the last of 10 Americans to win the event at the Olympics, concurs. "What makes Dave Johnson stand out is that he knows how to win," says Jenner. "That is crucial. You've got to be the best you can be on that given day -- and know...
...Ueberroth, who used to run a string of travel agencies, seemed to be everywhere at all times, as if competing in some private decathlon. HIs favorite line for reporters, repeated right up until the closing ceremonies, was `So far so good'. . . Ueberroth dominated the scene to such an extent that one of the I.O.C. president's underlings was overheard referring to him as 'Ueberralles...
Thorpe won his Olympic decathlon at Stockholm in 1912. "You, sir," declared King Gustav, "are the world's greatest athlete." To which Thorpe replied with touching simplicity, "Thanks, King." Thompson has often heard the description "world's greatest athlete" -- in fact, he has been called the greatest of all time -- but has never seriously proclaimed the title. "It's merely a tag," he says. He does feel akin to Thorpe though. "We're all his descendants -- Mathias, Rafer Johnson, Jenner, me. We've all shared something. It's passed down from one to the next. It's never anyone...
...going to be the best in the world at something. My school friends used to laugh at me, but I kept searching for the thing that would express who I am. There's only one key for every lock, you know. As soon as I found the decathlon, I knew...