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Bryan Clay

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Bryan Clay
Clay in 2010
Personal information
Full nameBryan Ezra Tsumoru Clay
Born (1980-01-03) January 3, 1980 (age 44)
Austin, Texas, United States
Height5 ft 11 in (180 cm)[1]
Weight185 lb (84 kg)[1]
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2008 Beijing Decathlon
Silver medal – second place 2004 Athens Decathlon
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2005 Helsinki Decathlon
World Indoor Championships
Gold medal – first place 2008 Valencia Heptathlon
Gold medal – first place 2010 Doha Heptathlon
Silver medal – second place 2006 Moscow Heptathlon
Silver medal – second place 2004 Budapest Heptathlon

Bryan Ezra Tsumoru Clay (Japanese: 石井 積, Ishii Tsumoru, born January 3, 1980) is an American decathlete who was the 2008 Summer Olympic champion for the decathlon and was also World champion in 2005.

Biography

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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. He has a younger brother, Nikolas, who was also a standout athlete on the Azusa Pacific University track team. Clay graduated from James B. Castle High School (Kaneohe, Hawaii) in 1998.

On March 23, 2013, Clay was inducted into the Azusa Pacific Hall of Fame in track and field.

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 is a devoted Christian. He believes that a balance of mental, physical and emotional health will help him in athletic competition.[4]

Athletic career

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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 in which he claimed the competition's best scores in the 100 metres and the long jump.[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]

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 tenth hurdle. He was initially disqualified for pushing over the hurdle, but that decision was reversed, allowing him a mark for running 16.81 s, last in the field and over 1.5 s slower than the next best competitor.[13] 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.

Achievements

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Bryan Clay in 2016

Personal bests

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Bryan Clay during the 2007 World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan.

Information from World Athletics profile unless otherwise noted.

Outdoor

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As of May 21, 2024
Event Performance Location Date Points
Decathlon 8,832 points Eugene June 30, 2008 8,832 points[14]
100 meters 10.27 (+0.2 m/s) Götzis May 29, 2010 1,011 points
Long jump 8.06 m (26 ft 5+1⁄4 in) w Chula Vista June 6, 2004 1,076 points
Shot put 16.27 m (53 ft 4+1⁄2 in) Beijing August 21, 2008 868 points
High jump 2.10 m (6 ft 10+1⁄2 in) Moscow March 11, 2006 896 points
400 meters 47.78 Tampa May 16, 1998 920 points
110 meters hurdles 13.64 (-0.3 m/s) Los Angeles May 8, 2010 1,022 points
Discus throw 55.87 m (183 ft 3+1⁄2 in) Carson June 24, 2005 993 points
Pole vault 5.15 m (16 ft 10+3⁄4 in) Ames February 15, 2008 957 points
Javelin throw 72.00 m (236 ft 2+1⁄2 in) Helsinki August 10, 2005 920 points
1500 meters 4:38.93 Eugene June 22, 2001 687 points
Virtual Best Performance 9,350 points

Indoor

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As of May 21, 2024.
Event Performance Location Date
Heptathlon 6,371 points Valencia March 9, 2008
60 meters 6.65 Budapest March 6, 2004
60 meters hurdles 7.77 Albuquerque February 27, 2010
200 meters 21.34 Azusa February 17, 2001
1000 meters 2:49.41 Budapest March 7, 2004

Politics

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Clay spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2008.[15]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Bryan CLAY | Profile". www.worldathletics.org.
  2. ^ a b Hunt, Nigel; Neil Maidment (2008-08-22). "FACTBOX: Gold medalist Bryan Clay". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  3. ^ "Bryan Clay Profile & Bio". 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. NBC. August 8, 2008. Archived from the original on 2016-10-19. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  4. ^ a b Bryan Clay (2003). Bryan Clay '03 (Documentary). Azusa Pacific University. Archived from the original on 2008-08-31. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  5. ^ Sheinin, Dave (2008-08-23). "Decathlon champ from USA world's greatest athlete". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  6. ^ Abrahamson, Alan (2008-08-23). "Clay achin' but brings home gold". Track & Field. NBC. Archived from the original on 2008-08-24. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  7. ^ "Clay wins gold in Olympic decathlon". NBC News. Associated Press. 2008-08-23. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  8. ^ Herman, Martyn (2008-08-22). "Classy Clay romps to decathlon gold". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  9. ^ "SPARQ Magazine: Is Brian Clay the world's greatest athlete?". Archived from the original on 2009-03-24. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
  10. ^ "Honolulu, Hawaii news, sports & weather - KITV Channel 4". www.kitv.com. Archived from the original on February 23, 2012.
  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.
  13. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-12-20. Retrieved 2019-12-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. ^ Crumpacker, John (July 1, 2008). "Clay impressive in winning decathlon". sfgate.com.
  15. ^ "Bryan Clay tells convention his priorities are God, family, track | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper". the.honoluluadvertiser.com.
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