O'Brein plans to withdraw from US trials and miss Olympics

Dan O'Brien, the defending Olympic champion in the decathlon and one of track and field's biggest names over the last decade, said today that he plans to withdraw from the U.S. trials and will miss the Sydney Games.

Dan O'Brien, the defending Olympic champion in the decathlon and one of track and field's biggest names over the last decade, said today that he plans to withdraw from the U.S. trials and will miss the Sydney Games.

The 34-year-old O'Brien, said he partially tore the plantar fascia, connective tissue on the bottom of his left foot, while practicing the high jump last Wednesday.

"I don't see any way I can participate Thursday at 4 'o'clock," he said, referring to the opening of the decathlon competition. "It's heartbreaking. I'm in shock." He said he had done everything he could to try to compete in spite of the injury.

"I got a big pain-killing shot yesterday, taped up the foot and ankle just furiously, as tight as I could, and it hurts too much even to jog at this point," he said at a news conference. "A couple of times I thought, 'To hell with it, just go for it' and I can't even take three or four steps without having to stop. It's that painful."

O'Brien said he wouldn't formally withdraw until just before the competition begins.

"I'm 98, 99 percent out right now," he said. "If for some reason a miracle were to happen, my prayers were answered and I woke up Thursday morning and felt like I could sprint, I would be out there giving a try."

Just a week ago, O'Brien had expressed optimism in defending his Olympic title, even though he had been in serious training only eight weeks and had not competed in a decathlon since winning the event at the 1998 Goodwill Games. That was his only decathlon since he won the Olympic gold medal in Atlanta in 1996.

O'Brien said he was practicing the high jump on the Washington State University track in Pullman last Tuesday when he felt something pop in his foot. Two days later, an MRI showed a 60 percent tear. "I can't run 15 or 20 meters at any kind of speed, not even half speed," he said.

But O'Brien said there was no way he was retiring from the sport. "It's hard to think about the future right now but I know for sure I'm not finished," he said. "I want to get healthy. I want to have a season. I want to run in some indoor meets. I want to challenge 9,000 points."

O'Brien underwent surgery for tendinitis on his right knee a year ago, and the recovery from the operation took much longer than he had expected.

He participated in the Modesto Relays in April, but the knee continued to give him problems. Last month, he competed in the 110-meter hurdles and long jump at the Grand Prix meet at Stanford, and pronounced himself ready for a decathlon. His optimism was bolstered by a 16-foot (5-meter) pole vault in a recent low-key meet.

O'Brien overcame a troubled adolescence growing up in Klamath Falls, Oregon, to become the "world's greatest athlete," the unofficial title given to the world record-holder and Olympic champion in the exhausting, two-day, 10-event decathlon.

He missed the 1992 Olympic team when he failed to clear an opening height in the pole vault at the trials, but never lost a decathlon again. In September 1992, shortly after the O'Brien-less Barcelona Games, he broke the world record with 8,891 points in a meet in Talence, France. That record stood until July 4, 1999, when Tomas Dvorak of the Czech Republic scored 8,994 at a meet in Prague.

"I've been in a daze just since it happened," O'Brien said. "I'm very disappointed. I go through states of depression. ... I think this hurts even worse than what happens in '92, because we just didn't get a chance."

O'Brien's withdrawal leaves Chris Huffins as the heavy favourite when the trials decathlon competition begins on Thursday, and as the best U.S. hope of defeating Dvorak in Sydney.

Huffins was stunned by O'Brien's injury. "Physically and mentally I've been preparing for a long time for this day, where I felt like I was at my best and the only decathlon on this planet I've never beaten was at his best, and we would go at it," Huffins said.