Daniel Dion O'Brien (born July 18, 1966) is an American former decathlete and Olympic gold medalist. He won the Olympic title in 1996, three consecutive world championships (1991, 1993, 1995), and set the world record in 1992. Early life O'Brien was born in Portland, Oregon in 1966. He is of African American and Finnish heritage, and grew up as an adopted child in an Irish-American family in Klamath Falls. He attended Henley High School graduating in 1984. At the Oregon High School State Championships he led his team to a team runner-up finish with O'Brien scoring all points. He earned four individual gold medals winning the 110 meter high hurdles, 300 meter hurdles, long jump and 100 yard dash. He then attended the University of Idaho in Moscow, where he competed in track and field for the Vandals. After initially flunking out of the university and then incurring legal difficulties, O'Brien attended Spokane Falls Community College, a community college in Spokane, Washington in 1987-1988. He returned to the UI to compete for the Vandal track and complete his bachelor's O'Brien trained for his Olympic and world championships on the Palouse under Idaho's track coach Mike Keller, and Rick Sloan of Washington State in neighboring Pullman for the field O'Brien competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1988; after a fast time in the 100 meters, he was injured in the long jump and withdrew. He took second place at the Goodwill Games in Seattle in 1990, behind Dave Johnson. Career Olympics As the 1991 world champion, O'Brien entered the Olympic year of 1992 as the favorite to win gold in the decathlon in Barcelona and be proclaimed as the "world's greatest athlete." However, during the U.S. Olympic Trials at Tad Gormley Stadium in New Orleans in late June, O'Brien had a disaster in the eighth event, the pole vault. After passing at the first four (lower) heights, O'Brien entered the competition at , and failed to clear the bar on all three attempts. As a result, he scored no points and dropped from first to eleventh place among the 24 decathletes. He did not make the Olympic team for Barcelona, but he continued to train for the competition held in France a few weeks after the Olympics ended. O'Brien's "no height" in the pole vault was also a financial embarrassment for his main corporate sponsor, and for NBC television which