If you’re an Olympic decathlon gold medalist, and you’re now retired from the sport, how are you supposed to spend your days?
Well, if you’re Bruce Jenner (the gold medalist in 1976), you do an interview with Diane Sawyer that perhaps changes the world and how it views transgender people. If you’re Bryan Clay (gold medalist in 2008 and silver medalist in 2004), perhaps your goals are a little less grand. Because if you’re Bryan Clay, you spend at least some of your time figuring out the best way to pull the baby teeth out of the mouths of your children.
His latest attempt makes sense for the man formerly known as the world’s greatest athlete: He ties one end of a piece of string to the tooth, ties the other end to a javelin, and then throws said javelin across a field. Look below to see if this idea was a success.
Andddddd @bryanclay (& his javelin tooth-pulling) has gone viral.
— USATF (@usatf) May 6, 2015
ICYMI: pic.twitter.com/URkQXMdokn
Two things I love: 1) Before the javelin is thrown, Clay’s 5-year-old daughter, Ellie, seems thrilled at the prospect of what’s about to transpire (that’s sarcasm, because in reality, she seemed unsure about the idea); 2) Instead of celebrating Clay’s feat of strength and dexterity with the praise he damn well deserves, she says simply, “Can I have water?”
Two days after Clay tweeted the now-viral video, the Clays have a new celebrity in their midst.
“She’s been running around saying that she’s famous, throwing that in the face of her brother and her sister,” Clay told TMZ.
Clay also said the family has a tradition of thinking up creative ideas to get their loose baby teeth yanked from their heads. In the past, Clay said the family has used bikes and styrofoam airplane gliders in an effort to force a visit from the Tooth Fairy.
When Clay’s wife suggested using a javelin, Ellie was up for the challenge.
“As soon as she heard it, she was sold,” Clay said. “She bugged me all day long to have that done.”
And after the extraction was complete, she asked for a glass of water. But Clay and his wife did her one better. After finding the tooth they soon would place under her pillow, they took out the kids for ice cream.
Photo via Chicago 2016/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
