Decathlete Bryan Clay was back home in Hawaii last month. He returns again next month when wife Sarah runs the marathon. The Olympic gold and silver medalist is working with Straub Hospital, Visa, Asics, BMW, BP, Oakley and Zico Coconut Water. He has his own foundation and speaks out against drunk driving and underage drinking for The Century Council. This year he released a book detailing what he hopes is an inspirational life, "Redemption: A Rebellious Spirit, a Praying Mother, and the Unlikely Path to Olympic Gold."
What would his life be like if he had cleared the hurdles —literally and figuratively — at this year’s Olympic Trials and become the first to win three decathlon medals?
Clay will not speculate. At age 32, with three children and a life he could have never imagined growing up, he has finally realized it was never about the destination, only the journey.
"We’re not just running through this thing going ‘When am I going to get my gold medal and be done?’ " Clay says. "Realistically, how many people don’t win a gold medal? If you’re one of these athletes trying to win a Super Bowl or a gold medal and you spend your entire career going after this and you never get it, does that mean your whole career was a waste? Does that mean it was for naught? Does that mean you’re not as good an athlete or your purpose in this world was any less because you didn’t do it? No. That’s why we’ve got to focus on this idea of the journey."
In essence, and 249 pages, this is what his book is all about. Clay vividly details an anger that often consumed him as a child, through his parents’ divorce and long after as he fought his way through Castle High School.
He writes of his mother’s faith, which he initially could not understand, and speaks warmly of the family and friends who surrounded him — and helped save him.
But he also paints a strange picture of an angry boy who built walls in his life. While searching for his faith he still fought. Against all odds, he thrived in high school and college track and field despite a propensity for "getting trashed."
Ultimately, with the help of all kinds of people, Clay becomes the person he is now: devoted husband and father, Olympic medalist on the Wheaties box, businessman, speaker, potential politician and, maybe, an Olympic decathlete in 2016.
"We haven’t officially made a decision on whether he’s retired," says his agent, Jeremy Snyder. "He’s still training, staying active. A lot of our partnerships are promoting health and fitness. He’s going to stay in that field. That’s a big thing."
Having said that, Snyder perks up when he talks about Clay’s "partners" seeing a different side of him — "the business side, the business man and the value he brings to the table." He was an analyst for Fox Sports in London, and an "ambassador" for his varied business interests.
"He’s a proven champion, two-time Olympic medalist, world’s greatest athlete — you can’t take that away from him," Snyder said. "He was very excited over there, it kind of opened up a new door, a new chapter in his life. All the companies have kind of said we want to work with you long-term because we see the value you bring to our organization."
When he was little, Clay’s mother, Michele Vandenberg, told him he would win a gold medal. She repeated it "countless times," even before she dragged him to the track to keep him out of trouble and found a valuable ally in Castle coach Martin Hee and his wife, Joyce.
There are many, many more allies detailed in Clay’s book, which will clearly need some kind of sequel before his kids, Jacob, Kate and Elly, grow up.
"It’s impossible to predict the future," Clay said. "I used to think that I would win a gold medal and that was going to be the end and I’d move on to a real job. Nothing else would come. But being at the end of my athletic career now and seeing everything else that is going on, the sky is the limit. … I couldn’t tell you where things are going to end up."
After Clay won the gold in Beijing he lay on the floor of Olympic Stadium and watched a "slideshow of my life" in his head.
"I realized I had no regrets," he says. "I realized I was completely satisfied and happy with the way I ran my race, if that’s what you want to call it. There’s just no better feeling than that. I think there’s a lot of people who would agree with that. A lot of people I’ve met who have been successful have almost had to fall from grace in order to realize that and have rebuilt their empire. We forget about that."
His book is available at Amazon, at Barnes and Noble and Logos bookstores and for loan from the state library system.
His life is available to any kid, if you listen to Clay, who refuses to "let my track career define who I am."
"I wanted to make sure I shared with people, especially kids from Hawaii or people that come from backgrounds like I did, that nobody is born to win the gold medal," he says. "I wasn’t born that way. I don’t even know if I was pre-destined to be this person. What happened is I had great people around me.
"My mom was faithful. She stuck around through a tough divorce and that kind of stuff. My grandparents stuck around. I had people in Hawaii … they talk about it takes a village to raise a kid — I had that in Hawaii. My mom knew that anywhere I went there was going to be somebody that knew me. There are so many people I couldn’t even get into it.
"I wanted to make sure that people understood I didn’t get to where I was alone. I also wasn’t born to do what I did. I had to work very hard, had to make sacrifices, learned lessons. Without going through those things, without that journey, I would never have gotten to where I am today."
