1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Decathletes are amazing: June 15th, 10:25am

Episode Date: June 15, 2022

Would they be considered the best athletes in the worldAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You're listening to One-on-One with DP, brought you by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul, on 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticket FM.com. Welcome back to one-on-one. We're talking athletes. And if you're talking about America, the history of American athletes, that some of the greatest athletes to ever exist fall in two spaces, right? The run slash jump guys, right? And what makes Carl Lewis unique is that he was the,

he was the fastest runner and the greatest jumper at the same time. You don't see that very often. So he would go into meets and he would kick your tail in the 100 and 200, and then he would go beat you as well in a long jump. Also would have been an All-American, based on his times, he would have been an All-American 400 if he had decided to do that as well. In his practice times, he would have been an All-American. All-American if he had decided to add 400 meters.

That happens with a lot of 100-200-meter guys where they're really good at the 400, but they're better at the one and the two, so they're like, look, I don't need to worry about this. Or you're so much better at the 400 that you, for your team, you compete in the 400 because you would win every meet and get extra points. Well, everybody was giving crap to Michael Norman because the last two years he's been the best four-hunter-unner in the world. He's been 44, damn near close to getting sub-44. And this last year he decided, you know what?

I want to sprint. So he did the one and the two. He went sub-10 in the one, and he's at 20, or sub-20 or close to sub-20 in the two. But the same thing applies in hurdles, right? Because at your essence, at your core, you're a sprinter. Yep. You may not be the fastest 100 meter, but your ability to transition hurdles. hurdles can take that speed and make it elite in the 110 or 200 meters.

The difference between 400 meters, Edwin Moses could have been an All-American at 400 meters. He decided I'm going to do hurdles, and I'm never going to lose. I'm never going to lose. But on the other side of that, so the fastest humans, you had through American Olympic history, you've got guys like Bob Hayes and Carl Lewis, Harvey Glenn. Steve Williams,

Riddick, you got, like there was a bunch of folks who were considered the fastest human on the planet. And for a lot of people, athleticism is purely centered on speed. Yes.

And the power required to do so. There are no weak 100-yard sprinters. No. There are not. Like, they're just not strong. Right. But when you expand, to it 100 meter long jump shot put high jump 400 meter 110 hurdles discus throw pole vault

javelin throw and 1500 meters which changes what's required of the body over a short period of time 10 events over a short period of time even and then consider that there may be heats in those right if you're at a big event you've got to win a heat and then advance it so you've got to double your output but great athletes In America, we're talking about some of the greatest athletes to ever live. You start with Jim Thorpe, and that's where the phrase that after he won the Olympics, he was dubbed the greatest athlete in the world. Now, mind you, he co-signed that by being a Hall of Fame football player.

Pretty athletic. And was a pretty good baseball player as well. And lacrosse. Pretty athletic. Again, another guy with an award, David after. Yeah, Bill Russell, Will Chamberl. Guys who excelled athletically in other spaces other than their own. They showed you.

Wilt would have been. There's stories about it. The story was that Wilt would have been an All-American sprinter had he chosen to do so. I can only imagine some of those guys doing high jump. Right. Like it's just like if you, and I know it's different because you've seen it with basketball players. Well players who. Different style of jump.

Yeah, you're like, oh, well, they could be great. High jumpers, like, see how high they get up off the ground to dunk the ball or see how high their head gets above the rim. But for high jump, it's completely different. Body control and the fact that you have to go off of one foot. Well, to go from the Fosbury flop goes to traditional. There are people who still do that that are getting like six six plus. Like how? Well, we thank Bob.

Bosbury for creating the flop and realizing that for some people it's easier to go off the other foot and then to turn your back to it and control your body and somehow bend into an upside down you. Right? I mean because I think once you get it to six foot, you doing the traditional is really difficult, but there are people who excel at it.

For America, I mean, Jim Thorpe should go back to 1912. Man, we did, you know, for a conversation to go back to Jim Thorpe, right? But guys, so here's some of the, America dominated the decathlon for a long period of time. Guys like Bill Toomey, Rayford Johnson, Bob Matthias.

Bob Matthias for a 12-year stretch was the best athlete in the world. Then Rayford Johnson and what he did, and of course he did it in Rome, Bill Toomey when they got to Mexico City, Bruce Jenner and Montreal, and then Daly Thompson from Great Britain took it over and had a 10-year stretch where he was the best athlete. He won in Moscow. He won in London. And the thing about,

he won in Los Angeles. The thing about Los Angeles, I'm old enough to, for the old heads out there, they remember Dan and Dave. Dan and Dave, where Reebok spent millions of dollars in advertising

and merchandising campaign. There were Dan versus Dave's shirts. I'm Team Dan. I'm Team Dave. were you? I wasn't. I found it funny. I found it hilarious.

Dan was this good-looking kind of he fit the part. And Dave was the kind of the all-American cut good-looking like that dude.

And it looked like you know, everybody had the perceptions of what they wanted. However, and just, now this is months, right? So the campaign, I'll give you some of the notes on this. The campaign began with TV commercials during the Super Bowl. Early.

Right? Really early. Right? And they were rivals. They were both favored to win medals in Barcelona. And Reebok had lost their share to Nike. So Reebok was using this. to get back in the top spot in that space.

And the series of television spots had the same message. Who will be the world's greatest athlete, Dan or Day, to be settled the summer in Barcelona? And Reeboks and plans, they were five months into this, six months into this campaign. Only thing was, Dan failed to qualify for the Olympics in the Catholic.

That throws a wrench into things Yeah, yeah He failed And when I look back on it now This would have been This would be everything that we talk about That millions of dollars At the top of-

I can only imagine That would be a week of radio Just on just on Wow, Reebok Well, no, you would have done You would have done this radio About this from the moment They ran the Super Bowl campaign

All the way up to the Olympic trials. Who would have been talking about, okay, well, he's really good at this event. He struggles in this one. He does this, but if you look over here and you look at the Germans, they're just solid in these events. So I don't know. Right.

So both of them were unknowns outside of track and field world. They became household names. Campaign led to both of them receiving endorsements from other companies. As a matter of fact, O'Brien went to Nike in 93. despite a football injury, right? Despite a foot injury, Johnson won a bronze. So he was injured, but he won a bronze in Barcelona. He retired quickly after that.

And then Dan O'Brien, I mean, Dan O'Brien went to Atlanta in the 96 Olympics and won the gold medal in his Catholic. Not the same, not the same. He got a bit of a pass, but not. Not really. Congratulations on your gold, but we could have used you four years earlier. So there is an ESPN 30 for 30 podcast, the trials of Dan and Dave. If you're really, I might have to.

Oh, it's a, it's a good bit. I love. And the commercials, the commercials were top level. They were good. They were top level. Dan versus Dave. Dan likes this. Dave likes this.

Who do you like? And they did this. And like for everything, like what they were eating, what they were, where. You know, all sorts of things. Perfect. And he just, and then he, they really, that's what it was. And then it failed. And then, you know.

And I, I can only imagine, I can only imagine if social media was around. It would have been everything all the time, Dan versus Day. Team Dan, hashtag team day. Absolutely. Hi, yours didn't even make it. Oh, it would have been brutal. It would have been brutal. But amazing.

And then people definitely would have saved tweets for four years later after he won gold and We're like, oh, where's yours at? Retired with his bronze. Well, but it also, I mean, this would have fired back. Like, he would have fired back at everybody. No, yeah. Also, the fact that he left Reebok for Nike. That's funny.

We built you. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. You can't do this to me? So I'll go through it at who's the greater athlete. Would you put today's take Bolt, you say Bolt, and then match him against the greatest decathletes.

athlete in the world. Who's the better athlete? It's the decathlete. Yeah. Or is it? And another thing, I don't know off the top of my head,

I can't think of one female decathlete. That's the hard part. And I feel terrible about it. They don't get the same amount of publicity, unfortunately. We know the women, we know the women, we know the women sprinters.

Yes. We know some of the long distance runs, Some of them. We don't know all of them. Track athlete. We know high jumpers. Now high jumpers is kind of a, it's got its own niche. Mid distance.

But long jump. I don't know the Catholic. Horizontal jumpers. Yeah. So I'm going to peak. One, I'm going to go back and watch some Dan and Dave commercials. As you should. Two, I'm going to go see if I can figure out who the women decathletes are.

We'll do that next. Watch live on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. You're listening to one-on-one. with DP on 937 the ticket and the ticketfm.com.