When Bryan Clay was an angry, combative child, his parents found a simple solution to their discipline problems. The more Clay ran, the more he stayed out of trouble.
But his parents could never have imagined how far and fast the Kane'ohe boy would go — with a few leaps, tosses and hurdles cleared for good measure: A silver medal in the decathlon in the 2004 Olympics and a gold medal in the decathlon at the 2005 World Championships of Track and Field.
It was a rage to riches story.
Angered over his mother's divorce and remarriage, the young Clay was frequently in trouble and he once knocked out an elementary school classmate. Sports was the solution.
Summer track and field programs and the coaches at Castle High School focused Clay's athletic abilities. They tapped into their rail-thin athlete's determination and he triumphed in nearly every event he tried, his anger a distant also-ran.
Clay's abilities were so compelling that coaches from other high schools wanted to help.
Clay attended college at Azusa Pacific University, a Christian school with a track program offering the only event capable of challenging Clay. The grueling, 10-event decathlon.
Although he came from a strong Christian family, Clay did not fully understand his own spirituality until enrolling at Azusa, where those around him challenged the athlete to embrace his faith.
He credits much of his success in the decathlon to that understanding and to the support of his wife, Sarah, whom he met at Azusa.
One of the smallest competitors in the field, Clay was not the favorite at the Athens Olympics in 2004. But he proved the skeptics wrong with one of the most powerful American performances in the event's history.
A year later at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, he proved his performance was not a fluke by winning the gold. His margin of victory was the largest in 14 years.
