Biography of Bryan Clay

Bryan Clay was born in Texas but moved to Hawaii at the age of 3 and grew up in Honolulu, where he lived until he left for college in the fall of 1998. He attended and graduated from a small Christian school in Southern California, Azusa Pacific University (APU). It was at APU that Bryan met his eventual wife, Sarah Smith. They wed in January of 2004 and in July of 2005 Bryan and Sarah welcomed their first child, Jacob Ezra Clay. Bryan is a true Hawaiian in every sense. He is a very laid back and fun loving person with a great sense of humor. In his home state of Hawaii, Bryan Clay is a household name and after the Olympics he was deemed “Hawaii’s Hero” by the media. Bryan will spend the better part of the autumn in Hawaii as well as some time during the holidays. Although he still considers Hawaii his home, he does spend most of his days training at APU with his long-time coach, Kevin Reid.

Bryan’s life as an adolescent wasn’t always one aimed on a successful path. He was a bit of a rebellious teen and was often finding himself in trouble. Bryan credits two things with getting his life back on track: His success in sports that led him to college, and his belief and acceptance of the Christian faith. At APU Bryan really began to accept the Christian faith that his mother had been trying to instill in him for many years. No longer a troubled teen, he is now a devote Christian that has an incomparable work ethic, a commitment to excellence, and an unwavering integrity. Bryan Clay is going to make a difference in the world and inspire many people. Bryan has now begun to utilize his fame to reach out to the youth. He has established the Bryan Clay Foundation that maintains the motto: “Building Champions, Changing Lives”. The mission of the foundation is to provide Hawaiian students in need with support to pursue college. He is providing student athletes with academic and athletic scholarships and is providing high school physical education departments with equipment and improved facilities. His personal goal for his foundation is quite simple: To provide a platform for success to youths that otherwise would not have the opportunity.

In the 10 events of the decathlon, athletes will generally be average in the majority of the events, excel in one or two of the events and be weak in one or 2 of the events. Bryan has great speed and as a result excels in the events that require speed, such as the 100m, the long jump, the 400m and the 110m hurdles. In fact, in Bryan’s entire career as a decathlete he has lost only one 100m race and that was due to illness. There have been many decathletes through the years that have been fast and excel in these events, but they were very weak in the throwing events and technical events. Bryan is the first athlete to come along that has been able to combine these talents and excel in the other events as well, in particular the throwing events. In the throwing events, Bryan is exceptional. In Helsinki, at the 2005 World Championships, Bryan won the javelin by 6 meters (20 feet), he won the discus by 3.5 meters (12 feet) and was 2nd in the shot put, losing by only 4cm (1.5 inches). In the same year at the US Championships Bryan threw a decathlon world record in the Discus with a throw of 55.86m (186 feet). What makes these performances even that much more impressive is that Bryan is by far the smallest athlete at the top level of the decathlon. He stands at 180cm (5’10”) and weighs just 83kg (183 lbs), where the average top ranked decathletes average approximately 190cm (6’3”) and 93kg (205 lbs). In fact, Bryan’s throwing event marks from the Helsinki Championships were the 2nd best set of marks in the history of the decathlon, bettered only slightly by the 195cm (6’7”) and 100kg (220lbs) Canadian, Michael Smith. Bryan showed off all his skills at the US Olympic Trials in 2004. Bryan finished first with a point total 8,660 points. What mad the victory even more impressive was that he beat the face of US decathlon athletes, Tom Pappas. He saved his best for the Olympics where he scored a career high 8,820 points which earned him the silver medal for Team USA. Bryan is now training for the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he plans to bring home the gold.

Speech Topics

The Change of Life