DATE: Wednesday, September 17, 1997         TAG: 9709170655

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KEVIN ARMSTRONG, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   75 lines

JOHNSON: TAKING TRIP FROM HYPE TO HUMILITY TURNING POINT FOR THE DECATHLETE WAS WHEN HE GAVE HIS LIFE TO GOD.

To millions across the nation, he became known simply as ``that Dave guy - you know, the one in the Reebok commercial.''

Seven months before the 1992 Olympic Games, decathletes Dave Johnson and Dan O'Brien were trotted before the American public by the sneaker maker as the best hopefuls for robbing Barcelona of gold in an event dominated by other nations.

Johnson proved that setting an example would take an unplanned turn from hype to humility.

Johnson, now training in California for the 2000 Olympic Games, retold the story of his turning point Tuesday before a crowd of about 600 at the Neptune Festival Interfaith Prayer Breakfast.

Johnson beat out O'Brien during the Olympic Trials in '92 but fractured his right foot so severely that he couldn't train during the six weeks before the Games.

Doctors advised him to back out, but Johnson refused. He had finished ninth in the 1988 Games and this was to be his moment.

The first of the decathlon's 10 events, the 100 meters, suggested otherwise.

Johnson ran poorly and fell behind by 200 points. In the long jump, things got worse.

``It felt like knives stabbing my foot,'' Johnson said. ``I sat down and prayed.''

But the pain intensified during the shotput. Johnson was called for a foul on all three attempts, the pain altering his well-honed technique.

Fortunately, the head official was watching nearby, and he overruled the call, allowing Johnson an unprecedented fourth throw.

``Here was my miracle,'' he said. ``(The officials) decided they made a mistake.''

The crowd booed.

``I was scared,'' Johnson said, ``but the Lord said, `Dave, you haven't been training 10 years to give it half of what you've got.' ''

Johnson spun around and launched the 16-pound ball 50 feet, 3 inches - the best throw of his life.

Things began to turn around, but Johnson remained far back in the standings after the first day and only half of the events.

It was the next day's first event, the 110-high hurdles, that proved his biggest test.

The prospect of pounding his injured foot against the pavement while clearing 10 hurdles, each 42 inches high seemed almost too much to bear.

Johnson was determined.

He shot from the starting line and about four hurdles later heard ``a pop, a crack'' in his foot.

He finished the race, but the pain nearly broke him.

``I thought, `OK, I'm going to quit. I've fought a good fight,' '' Johnson recalled. Then he bowed his head to pray.

When he finished, he looked up and saw the thousands of faces in the stadium peering down at him. He imagined millions more on televisions around the globe watching and waiting to see what he would do.

An example. He was to be an example. The thought consumed him.

He imagined kids quitting. He imagined parents quitting on their kids.

Then he remembered a friend in high school who had helped Johnson straighten out his life simply by being an example.

It was during Johnson's senior year in high school in Corvalis, Ore.

Johnson said he had been hanging out with the wrong kind of friends while growing up in Missoula, Mont. His main pursuit was alcohol and he used to steal it off the vendor's truck when he was 12 years old.

He tried out for football and met a wide receiver who always was reading the Bible.

``He didn't drink one drop and I saw he was still having a good time,'' Johnson said.

Several months later, ``I decided to give my life to God. That was the change in my life.'' ILLUSTRATION: Dave Johnson, better known from the Reebok commercial,

is now training in California for the 2000 Olympic Games.

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