Daniel's Story
Globetrotting former American decathlete Dan Golubovic sat out of championships for three years to become eligible to represent Australia, which was eventually granted in 2020.
He has made the most of his opportunities to represent his new country Australia with two top-15 decathlon performances at the 2022 and 2023 world championships and a silver medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
‘Decathlon Dan’ will cap off an outstanding two years wearing the green and gold of his adopted country at the Paris Olympics.
Born in Los Angeles and raised around Manhattan Beach in California, Dan Golubovic began his athletics journey as a pure high jumper aged 16. He then picked up the pole vault as an 18-year-old.
From there he tested his aptitude across other disciplines before committing to the decathlon when enrolled at UC San Diego at 19. He competed in nine decathlons between 2016 and 2018, at major championships like the NCAAs and USA Championships. He was top-6 on three occasions at the USA Nationals.
In 2017 he represented America in the Thorpe Cup, a combined events match between Germany and USA.
His father was born in Australia and Dan had dual citizenship. Seeking to represent Australia his 3-year period of ineligibility to compete at a major championships or Games started in 2017 and ended in 2020.
During this time, in 2019, he placed first at the Australian championships in the decathlon with a PB score of 7901. On 2 February 2020 he became eligible to represent Australia but shortly after COVID happened.
In June 2021 he smashed his PB scoring 8223, but fell short of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. In December that year he scored big in the decathlon with a tally of 8336. In 2022 he was selected to make his Australian debut at the World Championships in Eugene - his country of birth. He placed 14th, but just 12 days later, on a different continent, he would win silver at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
In 2023 he was again over 8300 points placing sixth at the famous Gotzis multi-event competition, ahead of his third Australian team in 13 months - the Budapest world championships where he placed 12th. Chasing his Olympic debut in Paris, he missed the 2024 Nationals, but in June rallied to score 8002 for second at the Oceania Championships. It was a nervous wait until the end of the Olympic qualification period, but eventually Dan remained in the World Athletics top-24 rankings, by just one point, to earn his Olympic debut in Paris.
Starting out in his career in California 10 years ago, Dan’s favourite athlete was Aussie pole vaulter Steve Hooker. A decade on, Steve Hooker will commentate about Dan on Channel 9’s coverage of the Paris Olympics.
Dan combines 30 hours of training a week with a fulltime job as a pricing analyst at Shell Energy.
Hobbies? “Racing motocross when I was 17, my bike died up the take-off of a 70-foot double jump and I hit the eject button. The scary part came when I ran to pick my bike off the track, I looked up and saw another rider in the air and coming straight for me. That one hurt a little bit.”
