I have always been amused when I see threads here complaining about the lack of money and respect accorded to bodybuilding. We all know that bodybuilding has its share of issues: drug use/dealing, corrupt judging, G4P, shrinking thongs, etc.
Even without those problems there are plenty of sports that generate little to no income for the participants as the article below details. If you want respect go become a brain surgeon, if you want money go become an overpriced lawyer or hedge fund manager, if you want fame go become a rock star. If you think bodybuilding is undervalued how do you think this guy feels?
For Decathlete, Little Payoff From Medal
By JOHN BRANCH
For Bryan Clay, a gold medal winner in Beijing in 2008 and once deemed the world’s greatest athlete, it’s difficult not to feel slighted by a life of near anonymity.GLENDORA, Calif. — The world’s greatest athlete, as he is often called, pulled a cardboard box from a shelf in the one-car garage of his three-bedroom home. It held his mementos from the Beijing Olympics, not counting the Wheaties boxes with his picture on them stacked on the kitchen counter.
Bryan Clay pulled out a framed photo.
“This one picture speaks everything to me,” he said.
Shot from a high perch, it showed his faceless silhouette standing alone on the wet track of the Bird’s Nest, the Olympic stadium.
The decathlon was once a star-making event of the Olympics, but Clay has gone largely unnoticed since winning the gold medal last August.
Wait a minute. Where is the gold medal?
“That’s a good question,” Clay said. He pulled open an empty drawer. He shrugged. He seemed unconcerned about the one thing that makes him different from anyone else in the world, but that did not change him much at all.
Clay, 29, lives in the same house, drives the same cars (a Chevrolet Tahoe and a Toyota Avalon), and has the same two sponsors (Nike and Hawaii Pacific Health, from his home state) that provide him a comfortable income. He spends most days training at Azusa Pacific University, where he went to college and met Sarah, his wife. They spend most nights at their home, much of which they renovated themselves, with their children, Jacob, 4, and Kate, 2.
When Clay returned from a recent workout, Sarah greeted him with news that five tiny tomatoes had sprouted on a plant in the backyard. He was excited to find more. One of the children soon called from the bathroom to have a bottom wiped.
“I still have to change diapers, clean the house, fix things,” Clay said. “It doesn’t change who you are or what it takes to get through day-to-day life. But it was a dream come true.”
How many world-class athletes dream like this — for memories in a box, for a medal they cannot find, for few of the tangible prizes that increasingly reward athletic prowess? How is it that backup quarterbacks, utility infielders and winless golf professionals live more extravagantly than someone deemed the world’s greatest athlete?
“I try not to think about it,” Clay said. “You do kind of feel slighted sometimes, just because of all the hard work you put in.”
He is preparing for the national championships later this month and the world championships in August, his first major competitions since the Beijing Games. Neither will garner much attention in this country. Maybe becoming the first man to win three Olympic decathlon medals (he won silver in 2004 and is aiming for London in 2012) will give Clay wider recognition. Or not.
Some people stare and cannot place him. Some confuse him with Tiger Woods, to whom he bears some resemblance. The biggest change for Clay is that more people want more of his time. His BlackBerry is usually filled with messages he has not read or heard. His manager and wife sift through the requests .
“Lots of people want you to do something for free,” Clay said. “Which I don’t mind, but it’s hard to say, ‘You know, this is how I make my living.’ ”
Clay was at an event recently with Bruce Jenner, the 1976 Olympic decathlon winner. People zipped past Clay to glimpse Jenner, who may be better known now as the father and stepfather on the E! reality series, “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
“You would not believe how many young people knew who Bruce Jenner is,” Clay said. “But it’s mostly because of the Kardashians.”
The swimmer Michael Phelps eclipsed all athletes in Beijing, but Clay barely had his 15 minutes of fame in his own sport. Soon after he fell to the track, victorious and exhausted, Jamaica set a world record in the 4x100-meter relay, ushering Clay to the highlight sideline . . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/sports/olympics/02clay.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all
