“What’s wrong? Did you go poop?”
The elite Olympic decathlete can jump, sprint, throw and hurdle with the world’s greatest. He travels around the globe making a living by performing supreme physical feats. But even the manliest of men are no match for a dirty diaper.
“Sorry,” he tells this reporter on the other end of the line as our interview gets interrupted.
The screaming continues. He puts the phone aside and mumbles something inaudible to the child. The crying stops. Crisis averted—for now.
“Sorry about that,” he reiterates.
Bryan Clay has achieved a level of fame relatively few others will experience in life. But not all athletes live in mansions, make millions of dollars or pay others to do their menial chores.
“Besides the fact that I’m an athlete, my life isn’t any different from a normal person’s,” Bryan says. “I still have to mow my lawn and give the kids baths and wash cars.”
Nevertheless, Bryan’s life is pretty sweet—now. The 28-year-old is a world-class competitor in the decathlon, the demanding track and field contest in which athletes compete in 10 different events (see “Deca Means 10”). The winner is often called “the world’s greatest athlete.” A silver medalist in the 2004 Athens Olympics, he is a favorite to win gold in Beijing.
“I try not to think about it too much,” Bryan says in typically laid-back fashion. “I train on a daily basis, and I know what my goals are and what to expect when I get there.”
Rough Start
Growing up in Honolulu, Bryan’s childhood was turbulent. His parents fought often and divorced when Bryan was in fifth grade.
For a time, his mother had a restraining order against his father, who would secretly visit Bryan and his younger brother at their elementary school and speak to Bryan at recess through a chain-link fence.
“I’m sure if I sat and thought about it, I could find some happy memories,” Bryan says. “But there were not a whole lot of good memories from that time.”
Bryan’s difficult upbringing showed in his behavior. He got in trouble often as drugs, drinking and vandalism marred his teen years.
Track and field became an escape and a constructive outlet for his pent-up emotions. After spurning several major scholarship offers, Bryan chose Azusa Pacific University, a Christian college in Southern California that competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, several steps below the NCAA Division I. There he became one of the most decorated NAIA athletes ever, winning the 2000 national decathlon championship and two national long jump titles.
As Bryan succeeded athletically, he internally searched for answers. He partied his first few years of college but found only emptiness. Finally, through the influence of his future wife, Sarah, and friends and family members, he saw his need for Christ’s love and forgiveness.
“I basically came to the point where it was like, this is not who I want to be,” he says. “I didn’t want it to be where a person would say, ‘Bryan Clay was a really good athlete,’ and that’s the only thing they could say about me.”
New Man
Now there’s plenty to say about Bryan’s character. He’s a dedicated husband and father of two. A local hero in Hawaii, he has put on free clinics for kids since 2004, and his Bryan Clay Foundation provides athletic and academic scholarships to the islands’ underprivileged children.
And his career? Well, you might just be reading about the next Olympic decathlon champion. Including his silver in Athens, Bryan’s credentials are impressive: two No. 1 world rankings and two U.S. Outdoor titles (2004, 2005), a World Outdoor title (2005) and a World Indoor title (2007). About the only things Bryan hasn’t accomplished are setting a world record and winning Olympic gold.
“He is a freak,” says longtime Azusa Pacific track coach Kevin Reid, who still coaches Bryan. “God was in one of his super-detail days when he put him together—speed, strength and mentality.”
Despite all his skills, personal glory doesn’t motivate Bryan. Rather, he believes his career will be used for divine purposes.
“I want to do the best I can so God can use me,” he says. “I’ve accomplished a lot already. There are only a few more things I can do in the sense of medals, so really I’ve got to have another reason for doing it. Otherwise, I’d end up getting bored and moving on. But I really feel God is going to use this.” 
