Clearing Hurdles: The Quest to be The World

Description

For all the world’s great athletes, only one man, the Olympic Gold Medalist in the decathlon, is officially deemed the World’s Greatest Athlete.

Eleven Americans have held this near mythical title since Jim Thorpe’s victory at the 1912 Stockholm Games, and not a single one, from the precocious Bob Mathias to the proud Bruce Jenner, has done it with as much flair or with a more gripping tale than Dan O’Brien. In Clearing Hurdles, you will discover what helped make Dan O’Brien an Olympic Gold Medalist. As an orphan who has never met his biological parents, as a recovering alcoholic, as the subject of a timelessly infamous Dan & Dave advertising campaign, as the athlete of perhaps the most publicized and shocking failure in the history of sports, and as a man who persevered through it all to dominate his sport like few athletes ever have, it’s no wonder Track & Field News calls Dan’s life the stuff movies are made of.