Decathlon buzz bubbles

Clay, Eaton, Hardee have shot at sweep in event with special place in U.S. lore Trey Hardee talks about the U.S. decathletes’ chances in London

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When Bruce Jenner invited Bryan Clay over for a recent family dinner, they had a chance to swap World’s Greatest Athlete stories.

Jenner has been keeping up with the decathlon longer than he’s been keeping up with the Kardashians. He won the Olympic gold COVER medal in 1976 in rousing fashion and then promptly retired and became a STORY pop-culture personality.

Clay won track and field’s grueling 10-event competition in 2008, four years after he took home the silver, and will compete in the U.S. Olympic trials this week with the goal of trying for an unprecedented third decathlon medal.

“It’s kind of scary to have somebody in my house that’s actually scored more points than me,” Jenner says. “It’s the first time that’s ever happened.

“I keep telling all my kids that . . . and all the Scan with any QR reader or download the code scanner at scan.mobi. (Available on nearly every U.S. smartphone.)

girls are going like, ‘Yeah, OK, big deal.’ ”

The decathlon was a big deal when Jenner won the two-day test of speed, power and endurance in Montreal.

“I was the right guy in the right place at the right time,” he says.

Then 20 years ago the event was part of one of the most famous ad campaigns in history, still known today simply as “Dan and Dave.”

Now the top three decathletes in the world are Americans: Clay, world champion Trey Hardee and world silver medalist Ashton Eaton. They’ll battle it out in Eugene, Ore., for the right to go to London and maybe even restore some of that mainstream mojo to their event in the USA.

“The guys in the past who had won it were bigger than life,” Jenner says, rattling off the names Jim Thorpe, Bob Mathias, Milt Campbell, Rafer Johnson and Bill Toomey. “They were not just Olympic champions; they were part of American history.”

Potential sweep in London

Now it’s not enough to just win in the Olympics, as demonstrated by the somewhat muted response to Clay’s victory. But talk of the first U.S. sweep since 1952 has generated interest as the decathlon celebrates its 100th anniversary. Of course, all three must get through 10 events, any of which could trip them up. Just ask Dan O’Brien.

In 1992, Reebok pitted him against Dave Johnson in more than a dozen popular commercials — “Who’s the World’s Greatest Athlete? To Be Settled in Barcelona” — but only Dave made it to the Games because Dan failed to clear a height in the pole vault in the trials and was knocked out of contention.

Dave went on to win the Olympic bronze medal despite a broken foot, and Dan broke the world record three weeks after the Games (the still-standing American record of 8,891 points) and then won the gold medal in Atlanta in 1996.

“A lot of people, I think, if you saw me fail, then you probably saw me win four years later,” O’Brien says. Hardee calls Dan and Dave a cautionary tale. “It’s a really special time in the U.S. to be a decathlete, and it’s something that you don’t want to get ahead of yourself,” he says. “The name of the game, the whole Dan and Dave thing, is what can happen if you let your guard down. . . . Not learning from that would be kind of tragic.

“We’re all collectively encouraging each other to focus on the trials and not get ahead of ourselves.”

The three athletes share an agent, and Eaton says they have a special bond. Clay calls it “a brotherhood,” although he adds, “I don’t want anybody to think that we’re soft and we don’t go out and compete.”

After all, it’s the fierce rivalries that excite the public’s rooting interest, a la Dan and Dave.

“Once Reebok kicked it in and made it a big national and international rivalry,” Johnson says, “you don’t think there’s anybody else in the world to watch.”

Other successful rivalries have been international, such as Jenner vs. 1972 Olympic champ Mykola Avilov of the Soviet Union.

“I think what’s missing here is some kind of a villain,” O’Brien says. “There’s no guy from the Czech Republic, no guy from Russia. There’s no German.

“There’s got to be somebody out there to compete against you. Where’s the story, man? We need something.”

Now Clay has something. At age 32, the Hawaii native is the oldest U.S. contender and hasn’t competed in a full decathlon in two years.

Faced with injuries and financial struggles — his shoe company even dropped him — he said, “This last year has been some of the hardest times of my life.

“All I’m trying to do is find the joy in competing again.”

Clay recognizes that, if footage of his dinner with Jenner appears on the Kardashians’ popular reality show, he could find a whole new audience.

“I’m not going to complain if it raises my profile,” he says.

Mental toughness

Hardee, 28, an Alabama native, has won two consecutive world titles — 2009 and 2011. But in the ninth event last year in South Korea, he injured his elbow while throwing the javelin.

Hardee, who says his No. 1 asset is “what I bring to the decathlon on the mental side,” gutted out the 1,500 meters to secure the gold medal. He had Tommy John elbow-ligament replacement surgery in September.

“People are going to watch Hardee’s every movement in the javelin warming up to see if he’s going to let it out,” says decathlon expert Frank Zarnowski, who will be the stadium announcer at the Olympic trials. “He may take a lob, something necessary to make the team, and then let it out in London.”

Hardee says if all three make the team, “I think the possibility of the medal sweep in London is really, really tangible.”

Eaton, 24, has posted times that make him the best runner in the event’s history, and he is the world recordholder in the seven-event indoor heptathlon, but he has never competed against Clay in a decathlon and has never beaten Hardee.

“Where they are is where I want to be,” Eaton says. “Competition brings out the best and it also kind of just makes you a bit nervous, because you know there are two other guys who are just as good or better.”

Zarnowski, a Dartmouth visiting professor, says he is antsy about predicting an Olympic sweep.

“I’m going to be holding my breath during that pole vault and any event that is what I call a catastrophe event like the hurdles, where people could fall,” he says. “Once they make the team, I’ll breathe a lot easier.”

Whoever makes it to London, Jenner, who will be an E! News correspondent at the Games, will be their biggest booster.

He says he was disappointed that NBC’s coverage of Clay’s victory four years ago was like a “highlights reel.”

“It’s just different priorities,” Jenner says. “We do have such a rich tradition in the U.S. of great decathletes and it is such a featured event at the Games, it’s a shame that people don’t know them.

“I’ve got such respect for these guys that are doing it today. They deserve more than what they’re getting.”