To earn the right to be called world’s greatest athlete, Olympic decathlon champion, Bryan Clay beat his rivals in the grueling 10-event competition held over two days.
Even though Clay retired from competitive track and field, the 2008 gold medalist hasn’t slowed down. As a proponent of active, healthy living, Clay is involved in enough fitness ventures to create his own sport.
He’s a motivational speaker, coach and mentor. He co-founded Eat the Frog Fitness, an exercise studio franchise that started in Washington and Canada. He’s an ambassador for Young Living, an essential-oils company. And he’s developing a fitness app — PK Fitness — that measures success by the effort you put into a workout and not by how far or fast you travel.
Not surprisingly, the 36-year-old former Hawaii resident is just fine with all that.
“Since I’m a decathlete, I’m always juggling more than one ball at a time,” Clay said. “Thankfully, my rock-star wife helps to manage my schedule.”
Clay lives with his wife Sarah, 36, their three children and a menagerie of pets: a pig, a dog, four chickens and a rabbit who’s pregnant. They live in Glendora, Calif., a small town that Clay says reminds him of Hawaii, where he grew up and and was a star athlete at Castle High School.
We live in a world where people work hard all week and then come home and sit on the couch and watch TV, Clay said. His remedy: Get back to basics.
“Everyone knows everyone,” he said of Glendora. “You can’t go anywhere without seeing someone you know.”
Being active these days takes more creativity for Clay. He can’t work out like he did when he as an Olympic athlete since he travels a lot for work and wants to spend quality time with the family when he’s at home.
But it’s a misconception that you need to run or lift weights if you want to lose weight or get fit, he said.
“If you just get outside and start moving and just play, you’ll see results,” he said in a phone interview from his California home. “Sometimes I’ll ride bikes with the kids, shoot hoops or go and jump on our trampoline. Have fun outdoors. People in Hawaii have no excuse. It’s like God’s playground.”
We live in a world where people work hard all week and then come home and sit on the couch and watch TV, Clay said. His remedy: Get back to basics. Fitness requires a routine, which can be difficult to start, Clay said. But even small steps can get you going.
“If you just stand still, you’re not in a race or on a journey,” he said. “You don’t want to be a spectator in life. You want to live life. You just need to put one foot in front of the other. There’s no magic formula. It’s hard work and taking advantage of opportunities along the way.”
Winning Olympic medals — he won a silver in 2004 — gave Clay opportunities and venues to share his fitness expertise with others, something the PK Fitness app could help him do on a broader scale.
Four years after retiring from competition, Clay remains involved in track and field, and earlier this month helped with the eighth annual Bryan Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific University, his alma mater. Next week he will return to the islands to be inducted into the Hawai‘i Sports Hall of Fame. Although Clay says it’s a huge honor and his family is proud of him, he believes his purpose in life is much bigger than athletics.
“When people look back on my legacy, I don’t want them to just see me as an athlete,” he said. “I’d want them to say, ‘He’s a phenomenal father, a top-notch husband, a man of faith and someone who cared about helping others.’ Those are the priorities that I want to define me.”
