From 1991 to 1996, Dan O'Brien was arguably the world's greatest athlete.

During this five-year stretch, he won three consecutive world decathlon titles, a world indoor heptathlon championship, and capped it all off by winning a gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

In September 1992, he set a world record of 8,891 points in the decathlon at an event in France and his mark stood for almost 20 years until it was broken by Ashton Eaton in June at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene. O'Brien was on hand to congratulate Eaton shortly after he set the new record of 9,039 points.

He was recently inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and his new book, Clearing Hurdles: A Quest to be the World's Greatest Athlete, came out in June.

During the 2012 Olympics in London, he will be working as an analyst for Yahoo! Sports.

O'Brien answered questions and talked about his incredible track and field career July 19 on seattletimes.com.