99% Invisible - 267- The Trials of Dan and Dave

Episode Date: July 19, 2017

This is the story of an ad campaign produced for the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona. Perennial runner-up in the sports shoe category, Reebok, was trying to make its mark and take down Nike. They chose two athletes, plucked them … Continue reading →

This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars. This is the story of an ad campaign produced for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Perennial runner-up in the sports shoe category, Reebok, was trying to make its mark and take down Nike. They chose two athletes, they plucked them out of obscurity, gave them re-boxed to wear, and turned them into household names, spending $25 million in the process. That was more than re-boxed entire marketing budget the previous year. This ad campaign is pretty much remembered as a disaster for re-bock, but it created from nothing, an epic drama that pitted two world-class decathletes against each

other, and it resulted in so many strange twists and turns. All because someone thought it was a clever way to sell shoes. I love this story. This is the first episode of 30 for 30 podcasts, which are original audio documentaries from ESPN. These are stories about sports, but they're the sports stories that I like that delve into their impact on culture, politics, and more. Here's host Jody Avrigan to guide you through the trials of Dan and Dave.

Five at the Metradome in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Super Bowl number 26. So I had a party at my apartment, and I got the six foot subway sub. That was the centerpiece, was the six foot sub. And I, you know, because I had a little money, and it's like, man, I bought all the booze, all the beer. And I quite a few people come over, and it got a little wild.

Super Bowl 26, January 26, 1992. Almost 80 million people watching on television. Many of them from parties like the one at D'Anneau Bryant's house. Everybody was drinking beer, and then we got into the heart alcohol, and it was really fun. Dan is watching from Moscow, Idaho. Dave Johnson is watching from Los Angeles, California. I probably had 30 or 40 people at my house

with multiple TVs set up. And everybody's there, and I kind of kept it a little bit of a secret. I just let them know why T.C. what's going to be on here. And so the first commercial comes on, and it's super short. It's in the third quarter, just before a Pepsi ad featuring Cindy Crawford. The first Dan and Dave commercial runs, featuring old photographs and grainy videos of two toddlers, Daniel Bryan and Dave Johnson.

Dan can run 100 meters in 10.3 seconds. Dave can I jump six feet, 10 and three quarter inches. This summer, they'll battle it out in Barcelona for the title of world's greatest athlete. The voiceover expounds on the man's athletic feats, but the visuals are just the photos of the two toddlers. Me and a bathtub, Dave on a bike, there was just little kids. And that's it. And everybody kind of looks around like, that's it. What the heck was that? Then, later in the same commercial break, another short ad runs.

Dan can throw a 16-pound shot put 53 feet 3 inches. Dave can actually shoot. More pictures and home videos. Only in this one, the kids are a little older, maybe 5 or 6. The second ad ends the same way as the first, a quick Reebok logo and a promise. This summer they'll battle it out in Barcelona for the title of World's greatest athlete. I didn't know what to expect, they didn't show us the commercials before we saw them at the Super Bowl. Reebok ran two more

commercials, making four in total, all during the third quarter, and all of them just 15 seconds long. Dan won the Decathlon at the World Track and Field Championships. Dave won the Decathlon at the Goodwill Games. This summer they'll battle it out in Barcelona for the title of World's greatest athlete. I remember people really being confused at first,

and then eventually they were going, man, that is genius. They were talking about how amazing that Reebok thought of doing small little commercials all the way to where there's a culmination of what they're really we're talking about, and that's these two athletes that are going to go to the Olympics this year, and it's going to be Zelda and Marsalona. By the way the game it's pretty lame with Washington beating Buffalo 3724

but the ads have made their impact. When the Super Bowl was over and the party was over and everybody got out of there and it was a little bit shocking really. It's like, wow, we're here to celebrate commercials that I was in. I remember sitting with a group of people that I had there and they were all going to go in, I can't believe I'm sitting there and that we're here with Dave. And I never really thought of myself that way that somebody would think it's cool to be with Dave. And I never really thought of myself that way, that somebody would think it's cool to be with Dave.

That was the first time I really sat there who was going on. You know, people are going to know who I am now. And I remember almost being scared, you know, what do you do with that? Get your body. In 92, Reebok was known primarily as a shoe that your mom wore to take a robious class is in. And they were desperate to increase their athletic

credibility. In 1992, Rick Siddig worked for Shiet Day. The ad agency hired to put together Reebok's latest campaign. The task agency hired to put together Rebox latest campaign. Rebox! The task was pretty daunting. We've got two guys no one's ever heard of in an event no one really cares about. All of the best-known athletes were Nike athletes. The Michael Jordan's of the world,

the most famous professional athletes in the world. If we wanted to stand out, we needed to do something else. The basic idea was, in sport circles, the winner of the Decathlon is the world's greatest athlete. And so, it wasn't hard for Reebok to get excited about a campaign that said, who's the world's greatest athlete? This Reebok athlete you've never heard of? Or this other re-bock athlete you've never heard of?

The de-cathlon by nature is, in my opinion, the toughest of all the track and field of bins. The de-cathlon is so tough because it combines so much. Its 10 events contested over the course of two days each one adding to the competitors overall point total. Day 1 is a 100 meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump and the 400 meter run. Day 2 is a 110 meter hurdles, discus, pull-fong, javelin, and last the 1,500 meter run. Then it attracts some really interesting individuals. We don't say that athletes find the de-Cathlon.

We say that the de-Cathlon will find those athletes. That's what happened to me. I think that's what happened to Dave. Born in 1963, Dave Johnson grew up in Montana and Oregon. By his own admission, he was hardly the model young man. I was one of those kids that was in a lot of trouble growing up. I was actually throwing snowballs at cars and I think I did definitely learn how to throw so well because I was able to stand farther back than anybody else and throw that apple or throw that snowball, throw that rock. I remember the first time a coach told me what the de-Cathalon was. He said, you should

do the de-Cathalon. I thought he said marathon. I coached no, I'm the herdler. I don't run distance. He was, no, no, the de-Cathalon. He said, you know, Bruce Jenner. And I go, well, Bruce Jenner, that's a guy on chips. I remember watching television. There's a genre was on a show called Chips at the time. He was doing a cameo with them. And so I just knew him as a Hollywood TV guy. And he said, no, he was an Olympic medalist. Dave Johnson was hooked.

Daniel Bryan also grew up in Oregon, just a few hours south of Dave near the small town of Klamath Falls. And he also had his ups and downs before finding his sport. Well growing up in Southern Oregon, to me, always felt like I was out of place. You know, we had six adopted kids in the family. I have a sister who's biracial like myself, a little brother who's Hispanic. I have a Native American sister and then two Korean sisters. Well, when you're the only kid of color or kids of color in your entire town, which the O'Brien family was,

it's interesting because all you wanna do when you're young is fit in. Blend in, go along, get along. And there we are, looking like the rainbow coalition. Every time we get out of the car and go to church, the movies, it's a very weird feeling when everybody's watching you. And I can just remember thinking,

you know, why are people staring at me? Why are people staring at us? This is just our regular family. And it wasn't until I got into sports that I really felt like I belonged. I always thought that sports was the equalizer for me. Didn't matter what you looked like or where you came from.

If you were good at sports, you were good. And Dan was good. He became a star athlete in high school, landed a scholarship at the University of Idaho, and there started to compete in the Decathlon. And in his senior year, 1988, he first crossed paths with Dave Johnson, a few years older, and already well established on the scene. You know, Dave was the best American up until that point, but Dan's star was rising quickly and others in the tight knit track community were starting to notice. I'm Jackie Jonah Cursey, the world's greatest female athlete. Jackie Jonah Cursey can say that even now thanks to her six Olympic medals and the

Heptathlon World Record, she said, in 1988, that still stands today. When you see this young talent, it's just a matter of time. They're going to have this big breakthrough. Well, it's interesting. Jackie Joiner Cursey made the comment that I could be the next Bruce Jitter. And that was what I was striving to do, you know, most of my career. He was the hero that we all needed in 1976

and he was the golden boy. And Dan was that very explosive athlete. I mean, he was just this young kid, very raw, very talkative. And he had a personality that could pull people to him. We're a perfect combination. I think he and I were a great duo that was meant to be where we were going to push each other to the levels that we ended up going to. And by the time the 1992 Barcelona Olympics had come into view, Dan and Dave had pushed each other to the top of the global stage. Dan won the decathlon at the World Track and Field Championships. Dave won the decathlon at the World Tracking Field Championships.

Dave won the decathlon at the G. You know, usually the multivance or dominated by the Europeans. And finally, in America, it's the breakthrough. And all of a sudden, it's like, wow, you're still at seeing this young talent put it all together. And among the observers who took notice were the executives at Reebok. Your mom's apparel company was on the hunt for athletes to get into business with. Dan and Dave, two dominant competitors,

but unknown personalities were the perfect fit. Here are two athletes putting our sport, you know, in the line light, to have that commercial showing doing the Super Bowl was wow. And we kind of looked at each other like wow, you know. These two young little decafetes were getting a lot of attention and it's about time and track and field athletes got that. The decaf one? Really? Us? This is unheard of. I can't believe they're asking us to do this. This is what Jordan does.

Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson, all the best basketball football guys do. With Dan and Dave, Reebok was looking to promote their new cross-trainer to the masses. A shoe designed for use across multiple sports and workouts. The greatest athlete at the time was Bo Jackson. And he played two sports. Bo knew everything Nike's campaign went. But the truth was, Dan and Dave were more equipped to back up that claim.

So when I look at Bo Jackson, he's a great baseball player, he's a great football player, but you know what? I thought I was the girl's greatest athlete because I could do 10 of it. And that thought played right into the case, Reebok was trying to make, as they rolled out more and more ads after the Super Bowl. Hi, World's Greatest Athlete here to talk to you about Reebok's new running

cross trainer. Hi, World's Greatest Athlete here to talk to you. Hey, excuse me, Reebok asked me to talk about the new running cross trainer. Oh, no, this is my commercial. Mine. Mine. Mine. The boldness of Reebok to come out with two people was really incredible. My name is Steve Miller and at the time of Dan and Dave, I was the head of a US sports marketing for Nike and we became very aware of the fact that Reebok was on to something very special. What you're looking for as a consumer is somebody who does something that you can't do, or something you aspire to do, or somebody who inspires you.

And Dan and Dave caught the eye and the ear of consumers throughout the country and globally as well. Dave, run, run, run, run, run, run. Each time that Reebok ran the commercial and revised it and upgraded Run, run, run, run. Each time that Reebok ran the commercial and revised it and upgraded it, you became more affectionate towards the two athletes. And so people picked their favorites. Who is the world's greatest athlete?

Dan or Dave? Dan's mom? Dan. Dave's mom? Dan's dentist. Dan. Dave's mailman? Dan's girlfriend? Dan. Dave's dentist. Damn. Dave's mailman.

Dave. Dan's girlfriend. Dan. Dave's wife. Dan's ex-girlfriend. Definitely. Dave. To be settled in Barcelona.

Reebok had a hit on their hands. I remember being in meetings and Reebok was just talking, we're going to compete with Nike. We're finally getting there. Reebok had filmed dozens of commercials to air during the spring. And while Dan and Dave had already known each other as rivals, the filming brought them closer together as friends. We were competing against each other to be better actors, but we were both not very good. And I think we both kind of knew that.

And there was plenty of downtime to bond on the set. I couldn't believe for a 30-second commercial. It's setting up cameras and all kinds of stuff. It would take two days of 12-hour day shooting. You just sit around to shoot 30 seconds. Finally, they call for you, and you do an hour's worth of work. And Dave and I looked at each other a couple times and I was just, we said, I can't believe we're waste of time.

This is Dan Where's Reebok. By late February, Dan and Dave were on talk shows. Dan and Dave were giving joint press conferences. Dan and Dave were being profiled on local morning TV. Dave and I got to shoot a commercial with Simbad, the comedian. He was the most incredible guy because he was so chill off camera, but then when the lights are on, he went crazy.

Hey everybody, I'm Simbad. I'm here with Dan and Dave, and we're playing basketball today. And I didn't get the end of the day, my stomach hurt because I was laughing so hard. And Simbad was maybe the worst athlete I had ever seen. Here I was one of the top five sports celebrity figures in the U.S. Everybody knew who Dan and Dave was.

I remember Dan and I were just going, what do we do with this? Well, an athlete's life is pretty simple. You get up, you train, you eat, you go to bed, and you just repeat that cycle each and every day. When the day of the day of the campaign was going on, my life got complicated. I couldn't go anywhere. I mean, there was nothing. I couldn't go to that and outhouse and come out and there was a camera there to see if I washed my hands, I guess. And that's what I wasn't prepared for is to understand that you know what?

I just wasn't another face in the crowd. It got to a point where I told my managers we can't do this anymore. We just stopped appearances. We've got to get this thing going. I mean I've got like four months up until the trials. The trials. The trials. The first Dan and Dave ads aired at the Super Bowl in January of 1992. The Olympics were in Barcelona in July. To be settled in Barcelona.

When Reebok approached Dave and I, the first thing both of us said was, you know neither one of us are on this team yet. We still have to go through the Olympic trials. Hello everyone and welcome to New Orleans at the US Olympic Track and Field Trials. The day already dawned. In 1992, the United States Olympic Track and Field Trials

were held at Tad Gormley Stadium in New Orleans the last week of June. I arrived in New Orleans and I think the first thing that I noticed as soon as I got off the plane was it was hot. The heat was blistering. Up or 90s with 99% humidity or something like that. Whoo! Like nothing I'd ever experienced before. Everywhere you went, day and day, day and day, day and day, all eyes are on, who is gonna represent the United States and who we're going and when the go melt.

You have the pressure a little bit for me with Reebok and the money they'd spend, I better make this Olympic team was in my mind because everybody's wanting to know who's better. We've got to see who wins and borrows alone. That's the commercial. Meanwhile, the trials were Reebok's last big marketing events before Barcelona and the company took full advantage. I noticed everybody was wearing these white t-shirts. And hats that either had dand or dave on them. They either had a red dand and blue daves.

And when you get into the stadium, everybody's wearing the t-shirts. And it was almost like somebody dropped them from a helicopter to all the people in the stands, at least half the people in the stands were wearing these white t-shirts. The top three finishers in the New Orleans de Cathlon would qualify for the Olympics. And the first day of events a Saturday went according to script, with Dan and Dave both racking up tons of points. Dave as usual was solid, while Dan, the reigning world champion, shot into first place.

Somebody was telling me that I was ahead of world record pace, so that made me feel pretty good. Dan was on fire. If there were any concerns for either of them, it was a lingering foot injury for Dave, but he was the best second day to Kathleen of all time and the headlines leading into Sunday were all about whether or not he could catch up to his archival. They've dominated the airwaves. Now their battle really begins. Daniel Bryan and Dave Johnson, who will win the decafon? Over the first two events of the second day, hurdles and discus, Dave started to close the gap. And then...

Sure enough, we got to the pole vault. The pole vault. The most stressful time, I think, de-cathlete or the coaches is the start of the povalt de-cathlete. Any coach will tell you that's where they're the most worried. In the povalt, competitors aim to clear increasing heights one by one. The higher the bar, the more points received. Each falter gets three attempts on a given height, and each can choose whatever height they'd like to start at.

But if they fail to clear the bar at the first height, they get no points. To start earning relatively high points immediately, Dan and Dave made the same aggressive choice. To begin their vault at 15 feet, nine inches. The higher vault is, it takes a while to get to your return to vault at your starting height. So you warm up and they might give you a few other warm

ups, but it's never enough. It's the eighth event. You're feeling your legs a little bit. And the sun was really starting to get hot. While we're sitting around the cameras are in our faces. They're falling, it was wherever we go. And I remember just thinking how distracting that was. Well, by the time the warm-ups ended,

it was almost two solid hours till I took my first jump. I vaulted first, I remember that. And so I made my first height and had no problem with it other than my foot was still getting more and more sore. Sat down and you know it was battling the heat again and I remember seeing his first attempt at that same height. You know once they call my name I kind of look down the runway kind of assess the wind, look over at the coach, he gives me a thumbs up. All I remember is putting my hands up way too late and so literally I just went straight up and straight down with hardly any bend in the pole. He

looked like he'd never vaulted before. He's just something was way wrong than I'd ever seen him have. And so on my next attempt I make all the adjustments. Come down the runway, good takeoff, good plant, I feel like I'm way over the bar and I come down on it slightly and the bar falls off. And then I start to think it's like, oh no, I'm on a third attempt. You don't want to be on a third attempt. At an opening bar. At an Olympic trials. This height, that's it, or he has lost maybe all chance. He had been on a world record pace and now risking not even qualifying for the team.

That's when I sat up and I was going, well, what is going on here? And it was kind of a quiet in the stands. It wasn't as much Dandy, dandy, dandy You kind of see the crowd begin to stir a little bit. Other athletes sit up and they look over your direction. Ooh, Brian's got two misses. This is opening bars. That is opener. Oh, did he make one?

No, I thought I saw him make one. Then you hear the people talking in the crowd as well. It's like, no, no, he made one. I saw him make one about an hour ago. No, that was a warm up. This third attempt, he might have taken a little run and then stopped and went back. This is his third and final attempt and he goes down the runway and stops. That was not a good start. As soon as I start my run on the third attempt, I get a big gust of wind coming from the right.

And so I stop. He just didn't look confident. This is it. He's not on the team if he doesn't make this high and he knows it and it's going through his mind. I just tell myself, settle down. Just relax. Just relax. And so I get back there and I take off. And down the runway, I go. There's a look on his face like,

I'm just gonna go and I'm just, I'll make sure I make it. And I feel pretty good. I plant the pole, the next thing you know, I'm stalled out on the top and I'm looking at the bar and I think,

get over it somehow. And I can't. It's not even close. Now he went under the pit. I come crashing down to the pit and I'm just in a days. What happened? What what what what happened?

And at that moment, you just I wanted to turn to somebody and say, help me. It was almost if the sun, all that heat that it became cloudy, and it became dark. Because you knew something bad had happened. something bad had happened. I blew a chance to go to the Olympic Games. I'm not on this Olympic team. It was, it was devastating.

I was devastated. I just tried to get away from people. But there's guys with cameras, there's people, and so I cried that I didn't make the team. I cried that I let everybody down. I was kind of in a day, it's just, you know, kind of freaked out by all of it. The thought never, ever crossed my mind that day and nor day were not make that Olympic team. And that just wasn't a thought.

My main goal is to win an Olympic gold medal here. And that was what my coaches and I thought my main goal is to win an Olympic gold medal here and that was what my coaches and I thought all along and we were so not ready for it. We were not ready to fail, to not make this team, to not win this meet. It was hard, everybody was still in disbelief, you could hear the buzz in the stands. Oh my gosh, you can't believe it. You are the best athlete in the world. And I knew it was hard to deal with dealing with all the commercials and all the hype and everything that went into it.

It was too much. It was a lot to have to deal with all at once. And the first thing I thought about is you have to get to him and tell him it's going to be OK. Because I cared about him as a person. You know, we were Dan and Dave singular. And everywhere we went, we had to be that person. It was one of those things where,

dang, the perfect situation wasn't happening. The exact thing that would have been what everybody wanted to see wasn't going to happen. Suddenly, I was alone. Dave Johnson, now all alone, no more Dan and Dave, Dave Johnson. You know, I was able to become Dave again, the real Dave, not the Dave Reebok. Johnson in the Javling competition. No seas thrown a beauty right here. It turns out to be an American record of 244 feet.

Dave places first in the overall competition. Meanwhile, Dan fails to qualify and they share an emotional embrace when it was over. Dave came over and said, I love you, man.. I love you man. You're gonna be all right I just decided he needed a hug Give him a big hug and just said I'm so sorry that that happened and I just I Couldn't even hug him back, you know, it was just kind of hands on my side. It's just like what the heck just happened kind of hands on my side. It's just like, what the heck just happened? For the next 48 hours, I walked around in a days and I didn't think much about Dan and Dave. Some people asked me, well, what's Reebok going to do? And at the time, I thought,

I don't care. But I got the real sense that, you know, somebody's just getting yelled at somewhere. There was probably some yelling going on at the ad agency. Rick Siddig was watching the events that afternoon on television from New York. So, it's a bad situation. The mood at the agency is just not crap. Reebok has made a huge investment in these athletes to pump up their credibility in the athletic world and they've got media to fill. And the future of the company is kind of resting on the outcome of this and it's now just gone to hell.

And in my head I'm going, oh no, we were planning to be on Johnny Carson, we were planning to be posting Saturday night live. All those commercials they'd already made. They'd made 10 or 15 commercials that we're going to play during the Olympic Games with Dan and Dave there. Steve Miller from Nike was in New Orleans with a few of his colleagues in a small section of seats in the middle of the stands watching the drama play out. Sitting in the stands and watching it was, you know, it was like a dream come true. For months, Steve and Nike had been secretly fantasizing this exact scenario. Yeah, we were actively hoping it's something bad would happen. I don't know, I don't know how else to put it. I'd like to lie and say no, it didn't make a difference.

What it made a difference, of course. The truth is, we were just f***ing happy. What are you gonna say? It was one of those moments where you feel so good, you get a little light headed. It's the first moment in time that I can never remember taking pleasure in somebody else's babe. Reebok, the creator of those Dan and Dave commercials, says that it's huge ad campaign isn't dead

yet. It just needs a slight re-adjustment. The re-adjustment came in the form of a new series of ads, embracing the change in the Dan and Dave's story. Reebok rebooted its campaign on the fly. They had new ads out within 48 hours. In the coming weeks, there was an ad with Dan Coaching Dave. Now that I've got some free time, I'm helping Dave train.

Fast to Dave, push it. One with Dave consoling Dan. Hey, you should be happy. You're going to represent your country. You're going for the gold. Yeah, I guess I just wish you were going down and that same ad also announced a new role for Dan O'Brien in Barcelona Dave, I am going huh? I'll be up on the broadcast booth. You mean the goal being being bar-shelona? Uh-huh. Together. Again? Uh-huh. Really? You wanna hug?

Nah, we already did that. OK. OK. OK. OK, the de-Cathlon resumed this morning at Olympic Stadium, American Dave Johnson expected to contend for the gold medal. When you're in the broadcast booth, it's really hard not to put yourself out there on the

track. You're at Dwight Stones and the guy who might have been Johnson's toughest competition at the Olympics, Dan O'Brien. It was a little strange, though, looking down there at guys who I thought I could beat for the Olympic gold medal. Yeah, it's just really too bad. You always hate for it to come down to your third attempt and maybe there were moments

when I wasn't horribly complimentary today. Well, Dwight, it looks to me like Dave is just lacked enthusiasm all day long. And I just saw him struggling. And I kept thinking this isn't the Dave Johnson that I saw all spring. This isn't the Dave Johnson that I saw at the Olympic trials. And I thought, you know, Gully, is he crumbling under the pressure? Dave was underperforming, but not because of the pressure. His foot injury from the trials had only gotten worse.

The public didn't know about it, but a few weeks before the games, Dave had met with a doctor about his foot. And the doctor said, you shouldn't go to the Olympics because it's going to break in half. And I'm waiting. I'm the Dave guy from the Reebok commercials. Dan didn't make the team. Didn't you see somebody's got to go?

In Barcelona, on a broken foot, starting day two in ninth place, Dave toughed it out and finished third. Dave Johnson becomes the first U.S. medalist in the event since Bruce Jenner back in 1976. You know, he did his absolute best, which was phenomenal to walk away with the bronze medal. Even as I stepped up and received the bronze metal, you know, and saw the American flag go up, I was thinking, man, I'd overcome, you know, this, this Dan and Dave had campaign and the, the broken foot and, and just the career of 14, 15 years of training. And I was

so fortunate to be able to step down from that metal's ceremony and go to the people that really knew me, my family, my coach, and go to the people that really knew me, my family, my coach, and the people that really were there in my life to get me to that moment. Dave wins the bronze medal. Robert's Mellick comes home with the gold from the Czech Republic. Neither Dave nor I claim the title of the world's greatest athlete in Barcelona.

And I think it was two or three days later in USA Today, Reebok has a big ad that says, congratulations to Dave Johnson for winning the Olympic bronze medal. Thank you, Dan and Dave, for a great year. And I think for me at that particular moment, Dan and Dave ended. Dan and Dave was over as an ad campaign and with Dave coming off a major injury, Dan and Dave looked to be over as a major rivalry too. But Dan O'Brien was already thinking about what was next. All I could do was really think about what was down the road for me. And the great thing about track and field is you don't have to wait every four years for a big event. I knew I was going to get another shot the following year at a world championship.

Starting in the fall of 1992, just a few weeks after the Barcelona games and for the next few years, then O'Brien went on the best tear of his life. September that same year, I break the world record. The winter of 1993, I win the first Heptathlon World Endor Championships, I break the world record. I win a U.S. outdoor title in Eugene, Oregon. I remember eating lunch with Bruce Jenner and Bruce kept telling me, only thing people are going to remember is the Olympic Games. And I thought to myself, man, this guy's crazy. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He didn't have a lot of money.

He's just a little bit of a guy who's been in the field for a long time. He's just a little bit of a guy who's been in the field for a long time. He's just a little bit of a guy who's been in the field for a long time. He's just a little bit of a guy who's been in the field for a long time. Bruce kept telling me, only thing people are going to remember is the Olympic games. And I thought to myself, man, this guy's crazy. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He didn't have world championships when he was a competing athlete. I get to compete at world championships every two years.

But it wasn't until later that I realized, man, Bruce was right. So Daniel Bryan set his sights on the next Olympics. And the chance to win a medal people would care about. But even as he was winning meat after meat, Dan felt he needed help, because he was still struggling with the mental side of the de-Cathlon. I used to get so nervous before I competed

that I would question why I do this, almost throwing up, wanting to quit. My name is Dr. Jim Reardon. I'm a sports psychologist from Columbus, Ohio. Dan had come to Dr. Reardon to talk about that anxiety he faced before every competition. But Dr. Reardon suspected there was a deeper element at play. The fallout from the Mist pole vault in New Orleans. the fallout from the Mistpovalt in New Orleans.

What can happen is people come in for treatment from trauma and the first thing the therapist wants to talk about is the trauma. And the last thing the person wants to talk about is the trauma. I just made the decision pretty early on. If he brings it up and wants to talk about it, we'll talk about it. But if he doesn't, then we won't, because he'll know when the time will be right. And so we didn't. For almost three years, the polvaltness didn't come up.

They talked about other parts of the de-Cathlon, their personal lives, the real world, but never New Orleans. Until one day in August 1995, 311 days until the next Olympic trials. We were having this conversation and he kind of started it out by saying, gosh, you know what? Last night was weird. I had a dream about the pole vault from 1992. He said, I haven't thought about that in years. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, I guess this is the moment. Over the coming months, Reardon decided that he had to take a big, aggressive step.

Dan had to watch footage of his failure in New Orleans. Somebody got me a copy of it. And I had a couple of back in those days DVDs made. I kind of caught him off guard. And I said, I got something I want you to look at. And we watched it. He's watching it and I'm watching him. It was ghastly.

It brought back all the feelings that I had in 1992. I remembered seeing the white t-shirts, dandered-dave t-shirts in the crowd. I remember what side of the field I was on and how hot it was. Oh my gosh, it was hot. And I remember thinking to myself, holy mackerel. I relived a horror of missing on a third attempt. And coming down, landing on the pit, and just being in a complete days, and it was absolutely ghastly to go through those emotions again. The video continued to roll, it showed Dave come over to hug me. I couldn't, I didn't even know what to say afterwards. And I said, what do you think?

And he said, I don't want to look at this. And I said, okay. And then I replayed it. And I said, what do you think? And he said, I feel like, I feel like throwing up. And I said, I said, you know what? I would much rather have you feel like that in a hotel room in Chula Vista in December than on the runway in Atlanta in June.

I wanted him to get to the point where he would have seen that video so many times that he would just get pissed off when he would think about it. And develop the mindset that pressure is nothing. Pressure is going to bring out the best in me. It's a trials double header today folks. Hello, I'm Bob Kausters. We have competition from Brackenfield here at the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta. And from Indiana. The trials for the 1996 Olympics were held in Atlanta, which would be the site of the games themselves later that summer. And once again, the Decaflon competition featured two familiar faces, Daniel Bryan and Dave Johnson.

But no one was talking about Dan and Dave in 1996. No Reebok campaign, in fact, Dan was a Nike athlete by this point. And Dave was living the typical battle of the injured athlete, one problem piling up on top of another. These trials were not about who would be the world's greatest athlete, Dan or Dave, the storyline was all Dan O'Brien. Well, Tom, I would say that the 1992 Olympic trials debacle by Dan O'Brien is a part of track and field lore and legend at this point. I was nervous going into the 96 trials. I'll be honest with you.

I can remember waking up the morning that the decafalon started. I put my head in my wife's lap and just sobbed because I was nervous and I was scared, you know, but I needed to get that out. I think every decafied who competes now is affected by his no height in the pole vault four years ago. I would submit that this will be the hardest track meet that Donald Bryan will ever compete in. Even if Dan had felt like he'd put 1992 behind him, the organizers in Atlanta wouldn't let him shake it so easily.

I'll never forget, as I walked out to run the hundred meters, the start of the very first day at the Atlanta Olympic Trials, I look up at the big screen on the north end of the side of the field and they're showing my failure in the pool vault. When I saw that footage, I was pissed off. I don't even know to this day whose idea it was. It really didn't upset me that I saw the video. I kind of almost chuckled.

I laughed it off. Because of the training that Dan had done, it became just nothing. I was ready. Proving he was ready, Dan got off to a great start. Going in today, too, he was in second place. And he'd remained there through the hurdles and the discus.

And with seven of the ten events complete, next, the dreaded pole vault. What must be going through his mind? I get a little nervous, and you know, just I'm tired of sitting around, 20 minutes has gone by, maybe a half hour since I took my last warm-up jump. Dan was cooling off, and just like in 1992, he was losing his rhythm. So he made a last-minute decision to change his strategy. Two bars before I'm supposed to come in, I get a little antsy, and I walked over to my coach Rick Sloan and I said, what do you think about me coming in at the next bar? It was a scheduled bar lower than I was supposed to come in

and he's just like, you feel good? Go for it. Do it. I didn't tell anybody else. I looked at my coach and all of a sudden I took my sweats off and I step up to the runway and they say, oh, Brian up. And I think that surprised even my competitors at the time. Well, Tom, they made one Intelligent Decision. They're starting at a height one foot below what Dan started it four years ago.

And everyone in the stadium holding their collective breath. I'm on the runway. I got my starter pole. Don't even think about missing. Just think, you know what, I'm here to vault. Head down the runway and think to myself, look, I'm probably not as warmed up as I should be. I push a little harder than I normally would

on a first attempt jump. As I take off the ground, my top hand slips about an inch and I re-grip real quick. Swing up, go over the bar, and I got a first attempt made. That's kind of like hitting the lottery. And by virtue of that first attempt make, I'm on the team. Here is the sweet irony for O'Brien. It looks like Dan O'Brien is going to gain the lead

into the Catalan because of his performance here in the pole vault. The event that was his undoing four years ago. Now also a few hours later, Dan would finish first in the trials de-Cathlon, a start contrast to four years earlier. In 1992, it had been Dave Johnson watching Dan struggle. This time, the roles were reversed. I ended up placing sixth and pretty much knew it that was my retirement after that event after that Olympic trials and you know I just remember just being able to encourage Dan

to go on in Atlanta and represent the United States. Dan here comes Dan O'Brien. Let's let the crowd carry him home here is finally going to make a US Olympic team. Daniel Bryan was World Champion, record holder. He'd exercised the demons of New Orleans. Now the only job left to do was to win the gold six weeks later. The trouble is when you've won everything, except for the Olympic gold medal,

and you feel like it's the last thing on your list, it's not as exciting as it could be. It was stressful. I was trying to just not make mistakes. Atlanta's Olympic Stadium were that a Catalan competition continued today, and for a report on day two in the Catalan, let's go to Dwightstones.

In Atlanta, in his quest to finally settle that question, who is the world's greatest athlete that had first been asked four years earlier? Daniel Bryan's first day of competition went off without a hitch. As prepared as I was for the Olympic Games, sometimes what you're not prepared for is what other people are going to do. This crazy young guy from Germany, Frank Busman, just young kid, he had personal best after personal best.

He was going crazy. So on this new stage Dan suddenly had a new rival. Boozman, the German, was right on his heels. Through day one, through the pole vault, and right up to the de-Cathlon's final two events, the Javelin and the 1500 meters, a race that had never been Dan's strongest. I need a big lead before the 1500 meters. And when I got to the Javlan, I didn't have as big a lead as I would have liked. He was a little too close for comfort.

Let's head back to the track, the two-day to Cathlon concluding tonight with a report on how the car was going. And so as I got into the Javlan, it was the twilight of the night. The Olympic Stadium was packed with hometown American fans rooting on Dan and a noisy contingent of Germans rooting on Boosman. Each of the competitors selected a javelin and took their first throw. Dan's first attempt was disappointing, but he tried to stay calm, scanning the crowd as he waited his next turn. I look over and see a guy in a red, white and blue Jersey,

USA Jersey, and a Steve Johnson. He's got his oakles on the back of his head, backwards like he always used to wear them, but he was down on the front row, you know, just kind of hanging. Dave had been standing with the U.S. coaches, quietly watching the drama play out. But now, he was noticing something. As Dan threw his first throw, I think I could tell that the javelin he was throwing wasn't flying exactly as well as it should be for his type of throwing. After the second throw, another disappointment,

Dan came over to consult with his coaches on the sidelines, with Dave standing right nearby. We had that eye contact. And I say to Dave, which javelin should I use? You got 100 to choose from out there. I had him pick out the javelin that I knew would work really well, you know, because I know the javelin is just my best event. Dave, Dave said the 90 meter Neemith, and I knew exactly which Javlin he was talking about, and I said, all right. Something about him being there, it put me at ease. It was just refreshing to my soul. I just felt good that he was going to be there to witness my greatest moment.

And Dano stepped up to the line for his third throw. He needs a cushion for the 1500. He unleashed a five and a half personal best. And made the 1500. I'm going to have personal best. Maybe in my mind I might have stepped out of myself and went out into his body a little bit. And I got to be damned for about 20 seconds and help him throw that thing. Oh, I did it, Dad! True words were never spoken. Dad, Brian, is on the ring.

I threw farther than Frank Busman so I didn't give up any points. I didn't give up any ground. This is what it's all about. Daddell Bryan is on the ring. Praise God the gold. I'm going to win an Olympic gold medal. Daddell Bryan, sorry to the courage of a world champion. Adam on the big champion, picking it up.

When Dan won a gold medal in 96, I was just glad that he came full circle for him. Being able to go through, but stick through, and not give up on the sport. And it was great to see him finally being on Olympic champions. And Dan don't buy it, takes title of the world's greatest athlete. I think it would be tough to talk about Dana Dave if I hadn't come back in 96 and won the gold. But I think failing in 1992 gave me an opportunity to rewrite the narrative. I had to change people's minds every time I stepped out

out of the track. People when they think of Dan and Dave they remember something went wrong. Reebok, they had this big campaign that we both were going to be at the Olympics and then only one of us went so it was a failure because of that but the reality of that situation is the campaign was a huge success. They sold more shoes of that particular running cross-trainers shoe than any other shoe throughout the year and a half that they were promoting it. That whole year was such a great experience except for two hours on the second day in the eighth event of the de-calfon.

I meet people who say, I remember where I was when you didn't make that third attempt in the pole vault. They have they have where were they stories when Daniel Bryan didn't make the Olympic team. And I think that's just in our human nature. We are just programmed to remember the bad times a little bit better than the good times. People remember the field goal that was missed. People remember the free throws that the guy didn't make. Nothing prepares you for really having your dream just kind of slip out from underneath you.

But a personality, a great performance, can change an athlete's life. To be settled in Barcelona. The Trials of Dan and Dave was hosted and produced by Jody Evergan with reporting by Andrew Mombo, sound design and original scoring by Ryan Ross Smith. Julia Lowry Henderson, Rose Evelith Taylor Barfield and Kate McCollough are the other producers at 30 for 30 podcasts. You can find the series on Apple podcasts or at 30 for 30podcast.com. The first season is five documentaries, the latest one just came out this week, and

it's a story about a huge casino caper with the world's most famous poker player and his mysterious accomplice, one millions of dollars using a flaw in the design of certain playing cards. Check it out. 99% of visible is a project of radio topia and KALW in San Francisco and produced on Radio Row. In beautiful, downtown, Oakland, California. You can find the show and join discussions about the show on Facebook. You can tweet at me at Roman Mars in the show at 99PI Org, or on Instagram, Tumblr, and

Reddit too. But if you've always wondered what those big two-digit codes painted on airport runways meant, you can find the answer on our website at 99pi.org Radio to PI. From PRX.