Among the decathlon events Bryan Clay has excelled in are (clockwise from top left) the hurdles, high jump, long jump, javelin and pole vault.
Clay sets goals beyond
Olympic GamesThe decathlon standout from Castle says
"there is more to life than just
track and field"
IF Honolulu's Bryan Clay had all his personal-best marks in the same meet, he would break the world decathlon scoring record.
The history of decathlons -- the world's oldest measured test of strength, speed and technique for running, jumping and throwing -- suggests that doing your career best in all 10 events of a single meet is not likely.
But by any projection, Clay, at age 24, is a legitimate world-championship contender.
As the 1998 Castle High graduate prepares for the U.S. team trials in Sacramento on July 16-17 and the Olympics, Aug. 23-24 in Athens, Clay has been reflecting on how he got here.
IRONICALLY, it was a troubled childhood after his parents' divorce that led him to the sport.
"I was an angry, angry boy and I did not know how to express it, so I got into fights," Clay said. "I started fights in basketball and soccer. I bit a kid in first grade and sent another kid to the hospital."
Finally, his mother told him:
"You can't figure out how to play with other kids, so no more team sports. You can do swimming or track.
"They don't involve other kids so you won't get in fights and you can't blame anybody else for things. You don't have to interact with anybody."
The family moved from Palolo to Kaneohe when Clay was in the sixth grade and he joined Kailua Track Club and became a state champion at Castle, where he was coached by former decathlete Martin Hee.
Clay picked Azusa Pacific University in California for college -- not because a series of decathlon champions had been developed there, but because it just felt right, he said.
Azusa Pacific is "kind of like Hawaii," Clay says, "a small place where everybody knows everybody and people genuinely care about who you are as a person. There is a sense of ohana, just like back home.
"It shows how much God's hand has been in my life.
"If I had gone to any other school, I would not be where I am today. I would have moved back home, got some girl pregnant, worked at 7-Eleven and surfed in the afternoons."
At Azusa, "I found men who I wasn't having power struggles with, who really cared about me," Clay said. "They were models of what a Christian young man was supposed to be like."
He received guidance from dean of students Terry Franzen and coach Kevin Reid, met and married Sarah Smith of Seattle and graduated last year with a degree in social work.
"I started to learn what commitment and love really meant," Clay said. "It changed every aspect of my life. It made me a better person, which in turn started making me a better athlete."
AND SO NOW Bryan Clay is poised to make his debut on the world media stage when the Olympic Games return to their birthplace in Athens eight weeks from now.
Since 1912, when Sweden's King Gustav V told Olympic decathlon champion Jim Thorpe: "You sir, are the world's greatest athlete," that title has been carried by the gold-medal winner in most of the world.
Decathlon experts predict Clay will make a good run for a medal this year and will be a leading contender for gold in 2008.
Clay says his goals extend much further.
"There is more to life than just track and field," he said. "I want to work with troubled teens, who are at where I was at.
"I want to be the one who makes a difference in their lives."
» For more on Bryan Clay and other amateur athletes from Hawaii on the mainland, go to www.hhsaa.org
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