Clay finished the 10-discipline competition with 8,791 points on Friday, just 100 off Dan O’Brien’s American record and a whopping 240 ahead of the silver medalist. It was the most one-sided decathlon triumph since the 1972 Munich Games.

Clay joins the likes of Bruce Jenner and Jim Thorpe as Olympic champions in an event that an American has won 12 times in 22 Olympics but only twice since 1976.

The event no longer grabs the headlines back home. Case in point: Clay’s triumph came just minutes before Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell led Jamaica to a world record in the 400-meter relay. When their news conference started, all but a handful of reporters left Clay.