The best athlete you don't know

“Who is Bryan Clay?”

That’s the answer I received from most of the self-proclaimed “sports fans” when I asked them if they knew who the man was. Before I give you any information on who this mystery man is or what he does, ask yourself if you even know who I’m talking about. If you don’t, I’m here to inform you.

In the most literal sense, Bryan Clay is the best athlete in the world. Yes, better than Lebron, Kobe and even Michael Phelps. While Clay might not play in the NBA or hold eight gold medals from the Beijing Olympics, he has earned the title of “World’s Greatest Athlete” by winning the 2008 Olympic gold medal in the decathlon.

If you don’t think that’s enough to warrant being called the world’s best athlete, then consider this: The decathlon is a test of all-around talent consisting of 10 track and field events held over two days. The running events are the 100-meter and 400-meter dashes, the 110-meter hurdles and the 1500-meter run. The field events are the long jump, shot put and high jump on day one of competition. The discus, pole vault and javelin events are held on day two.

Clay can run the 100-meter in less than 10.4 seconds, the hurdles in less than 13.8 seconds and the 1500-meter in about 4.5 minutes. Clay can also long jump more than 26 feet and throw a discus more than 183 feet.

Clay, 28, was born in Austin, Texas, and was raised in Hawaii. He attended college at Azusa Pacific University near Los Angeles, where he now lives and trains.
Standing less than 6 feet tall, he’s much less imposing than most other decathletes, but he uses his deceptive speed and strength to his advantage.

By winning gold he has now earned his way into the line of past great Olympic decathletes like Jim Thorpe, Bob Matthias and Dan O’Brien. In an ESPN interview Clay told a reporter, “I hope this can help bring the decathlon back to where it was in this country.”

He’s referring to a time when if you failed to mention the top decathlete with the likes of the top basketball or baseball players, you were committing blasphemy.

Clay is a humble man with a great work ethic. He is also very accessible. He has a blog, www.bryanclay.com, where he routinely posts updates and answers questions like any regular guy. He answers about everything from his ethnicity — he’s half Japanese and half African-American — to questions about running with his Labrador.
He’s not one to boast or worry about fame.

But after winning, he made one simple request while talking to reporters: “I just want to be the Wheaties Box man.”

So you might not ever witness Clay’s crossover dribble, his 200-meter freestyle stroke in the pool or see him jog his way to a 100-meter track and field world record (see Usain Bolt), but you will catch him running, jumping, vaulting and throwing as he conquers what is certainly the toughest sporting event there is: the decathlon.

I’d like to see Mr. Bolt try that.