Bryan Clay

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Bryan Clay
Personal information
Full name Bryan Ezra Tsumoru Clay
Born January 3, 1980 (1980-01-03) (age 32)
Austin, Texas, United States
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight 180 pounds (82 kg)
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 Heptathlon
Gold 2010 Doha Heptathlon
Silver 2006 Moscow Heptathlon
Silver 2004 Budapest Heptathlon

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

Contents

[edit] Biography

Clay was born in Austin, Texas[1] 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.[2] 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 (b. 2005), and two daughters, Katherine (Kate) (b. 2007) and Elizabeth (Ellie) (b. 2010) .[3] Clay believes that a balance of mental, physical, and emotional health will help him in athletic competition.[3] Clay is a devout Christian.[4]

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.[1]

Clay won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics, and finished first at the 2005 World Championships. He was unable to compete in the 2007 World Championships due to injuries.[5]

Clay won the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in the decathlon.[6][7] His victory margin of 240 points in the 2008 Beijing Olympics was the largest since 1972.[8] 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.[9]

He is one of two Olympians featured on a special edition post-Beijing Olympics Wheaties cereal box; the other was gymnast Nastia Liukin.[10]

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.[11] 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 Hypo-Meeting, holding off the challenge from Romain Barras.[12]

[edit] Achievements

[edit] Personal best

 This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (August 2008)
Bryan Clay during the 2007 World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan.

Decathlon events:

Others:

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Hunt, Nigel; Neil Maidment (2008-08-22). "FACTBOX: Gold medalist Bryan Clay". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Olympics/idUSPEK18089420080822. Retrieved 2008-08-24. 
  2. ^ "Bryan Clay Profile & Bio". 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics (NBC). August 8, 2008. http://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=148/bio/. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
  3. ^ a b Bryan Clay (2003). Bryan Clay ’03 (Documentary). Azusa Pacific University. http://www.apu.edu/stories/bclay/. Retrieved 2008-08-24. 
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ Sheinin, Dave (2008-08-23). "Decathlon champ from USA world's greatest athlete". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. http://www.pittsburghpostgazette.com/pg/08236/906538-123.stm. Retrieved 2008-08-24. 
  6. ^ Abrahamson, Alan (2008-08-23). "Clay achin' but brings home gold". Track & Field (NBC). http://www.nbcolympics.com/trackandfield/news/newsid=241924.html#clay+achin+brings+home+gold. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
  7. ^ Associated Press (2008-08-23). "Clay wins gold in Olympic decathlon". MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26345555. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
  8. ^ Herman, Martyn (2008-08-22). "Classy Clay romps to decathlon gold". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Olympics/idUSPEK17863220080822. Retrieved 2008-08-24. 
  9. ^ SPARQ Magazine: Is Brian Clay the world's greatest athlete?
  10. ^ Bryan Clay On Special Edition Wheaties, KITV-Honolulu, August 28, 2008
  11. ^ Injury ends Clay's decathlon bid. BBC Sport (2009-06-25). Retrieved on 2009-06-26.
  12. ^ Sampaolo, Diego (2010-05-30). Clay and Ennis beat the rain to take Götzis titles – IAAF Combined Events Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved on 2010-06-01.

[edit] External links
all-around
pentathlon
decathlon
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