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It took a few<br>weeks, and quite a few calls from friends, family, coaches and other<n-game schedule. Then Josh had another decision to make: where would he go now?<br><br>Many Division I schools do not recruit JC players. The closest college, BYU, was not interested in Josh. Oklahoma needed a new quarterback. Coach Bob Stoops was just in the process of starting a new era of Sooner football.  I wanted to win, remembered Josh.  The quarterback in Coach Stoops' offense was supposed to be a pivotal guy. His quarterback was supposed to be a key man and make audibles a good percentage of the timan knew he needed the Olympic gold.<br><br>Dan went on to win two more world championships before the 1996 Olympic trials came around. Once again, all eyes were on Dan, and the event they watched most closely was the pole vault.<br><br> I knew it was a big deal, says Dan.  But I wasn t worried in the least. It<br>was no longer an issue for me. I <br>wasn t even worried about the trials.<br> I had one goal; that was the gold. Not the bronze, not the silver. I knew exactly what I wanted and was counting the days to Atlanta. <br><br>He sailed through the trials. In Atlanta, he sailed through the decathlon, holding on to a steady point margin throughout each of the ten events. Dan became the first American to win the decathlon since Bruce Jenner in 1976. His only disappointment was that he did not break his own world record. That is a goal he is still working on.<br><br>Historic Parallels<br><br>For those who follow the sport of decathlon, the parallels between Dan s life and that of the first gold medal decathlete, Jim Thorpe, cannot be ignored. Both were born of mixed races. Both have Irish surnames. Both came from small schools and towns. They have each enjoyed immeung as 16 months all the way up to competitive junior Olympic teams. They also have popular recreational and tumbling classes. Ayars says that gymnastics usually costs more than most other sports, which he attributes to a lack of support from taxpayers who are more willing to subsidize main-stream sports such as baseball.<br>Ayars is vocal on the subject of how public support affects gymnastics in this country:  Men s gymnastics has been hurting at the international level because it s really developed at the collegiate level, and over the past 10 to 12 years the