Bryan Clay

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Bryan Clay

Personal information
Full name
Born

Bryan Ezra Tsumoru Clay

January 3, 1980 (age 33)

Austin, Texas, United States

Height

5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)[1]

Weight

185 lb (84 kg)[1]

Medal record
Men's athletics
Competitor for the United States
Olympic Games
Gold 2008 Beijing Decathlon
Silver 2004 Athens Decathlon
World Championships
Gold 2005 Helsinki

Decathlon

World Indoor Championships

Gold 2008 Valencia
Gold 2010 Doha

Heptathlon

Heptathlon

Silver 2006 Moscow

Heptathlon

Silver 2004 Budapest

Heptathlon

Bryan Ezra Tsumoru Clay (born January 3, 1980) is an American decathlete. He was
the 2008 Summer Olympic champion for the decathlon and was also World
champion in 2005.
Contents

1 Biography
2 Athletic career
3 Achievements
4 Personal best
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
[edit]Biography

Clay was born in Austin, Texas[2] and raised in Hawaii. He is Afro-Asian. His mother,
Michele Ishimoto, was a Japanese immigrant to America. His father, Greg Clay, was
African American.[3] His parents divorced when he was in elementary school and he
was raised primarily by his mother.
Clay has a younger brother, Nikolas, who was also a standout athlete on the Azusa
Pacific University track team.
He graduated from James B. Castle High School (Kaneohe, Hawaii) in 1998.
Clay is married to Sarah Smith. They have a son, Jacob (born 2005), and two
daughters, Katherine (Kate) (born 2007) and Elizabeth (Ellie) (born 2010).[4] Clay
believes that a balance of mental, physical, and emotional health will help him in
athletic competition.[4] Clay is a devout Christian.[5]
Clay addressed the 2008 Republican National Convention.
[edit]Athletic career

He competed in track and field in high school, during which time he was coached by
Dacre Bowen and Martin Hee. He then attended Azusa Pacific University, an
Evangelical Christian college near Los Angeles, California, where he competed in the
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and was coached by Mike Barnett,
who still coaches him. Clay still trains at Azusa Pacific University. Clay decided to
compete in the decathlon after persuasion from Olympian Chris Huffins.[2]
Clay won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics, and finished first at the 2005 World
Championships. He was unable to complete the 2007 World Championships due to
injuries, dropping out after four events.[6]

Clay won the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in the decathlon.[7][8] His victory
margin of 240 points in the 2008 Beijing Olympics was the largest since 1972.[9]
The Olympic decathlon champion is referred to as the "World's Greatest Athlete"
and prior to the Olympics, Clay was tested by SPARQ to establish his SPARQ Rating
across a number of different sports. The test is meant to measure sport-specific
athleticism and in the football test Clay recorded a score of 130.40, the highest ever
recorded up to that point. By comparison, Reggie Bush scored a 93.38 on the
popular test.[10]
He is one of two Olympians featured on a special edition post-Beijing Olympics
Wheaties cereal box; the other was gymnast Nastia Liukin.[11]
His attempts to regain his World Championships decathlon title were thwarted by a
hamstring injury in June 2009. This caused him to drop out of the US trials; thus, he
missed the chance to compete at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.[12] He
returned to action in 2010 and won the men's heptathlon at the 2010 IAAF World
Indoor Championships. At the start of his outdoor season he won the 2010 HypoMeeting, holding off the challenge from Romain Barras.[13]
In 2012, Clay had returned to the Olympic Trials in hopes of making a third Olympics
and defending his title. Defending the title was a feat only achieved twice, by Bob
Mathias and by Daley Thompson. That attempt was quashed at the beginning of the
second day, when he tripped over the 9th hurdle in the 110 metres hurdles, then off
balance pushed over the 10th hurdles. He was initially disqualified for pushing over
the hurdle, but that decision was reversed, allowing him a mark for running 16.81,
last in the field over a second and a half slower than the next best competitor.[14]
Thinking he had been disqualified in the hurdles, Clay followed the hurdle accident
with three straight fouls in the discus throws, but he still completed the competition.
[edit]Achievements

2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships - gold medal

Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics Men's decathlon - gold medal
2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships - gold medal
2005 World Championships in Athletics - gold medal
Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics Men's decathlon - silver medal
2004 World Indoor Championships - silver medal
[edit]Personal best

Bryan Clay during the 2007 World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan.
Decathlon - 8832
Decathlon events:
100 m - 10.35
400 m - 47.78
110 m hurdles - 13.64
1500 m - 4:38.93
Long jump - 8.06
High jump - 2.10
Pole vault - 5.15
Shot put - 16.27
Discus throw - 55.87 (world decathlon best)
Javelin throw - 72.00
Others:
60 m - 6.65
60 m hurdles - 7.77
200 m - 21.34
1000 m - 2:49.41
Heptathlon - 6371