Decathlon Dave on His Own

He grew up running from the cops. Now, at 29, Dave Johnson may outpoint everyone in the Olympic decathlon.

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 at the U.S. Olympic trials a fortnight...

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