Fraser Valley gymnast Zachary Clay's incredible journey from devastating injury to the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics has helped him earn the Sport BC Harry Jerome Comeback Award.
Clay was announced as the recipient of the award on Wednesday (Jan. 29) and will be on-hand to accept the honour at the 57th annual Sport BC Athlete of the Year Awards on March 6 in Vancouver.
The 29-year-old had a bad landing on a double jump during a competition in 2015, which saw him snap his anterior cruciate ligament and fracture his tibia.
"My right knee ended up giving out and my knee bent backwards – what people have told me is it went back a 90-degree angle,” he said. “Apparently three people in the crowd fainted at the sight of it. It’s a good story I can tell now but during the moment it was not very pleasant.”
He noted that doctors who surveyed the damage described the bone fracture as “like a car had smashed into the bone.”
However, that injury didn't dissuade Clay from the mats. He continued competing for Canada and training at Abbotsford's Twisters Gymnastics.
After surgery, it would be two years of physiotherapy and rehabilitation, along with many frustrating days in the gym, before he returned to elite competition and began to find his form again. In 2017 he won the senior national all-around title and took gold in pommel at the Pan Am championships, capping the comeback year by qualifying for the all-around grand final at the 2017 World Championships in Montreal.
“Prior to nationals the comeback had been difficult,” he said. “I was making a lot of mistakes, I wasn’t consistent, it was frustrating, and I had some doubts. But when I went to nationals things just started to click for me.”
Clay went on to help Canada qualify for the Paris Games thanks to an excellent showing at the 2023 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. The Chilliwack resident competed in all six apparatus events at the world championships and Canada's results allowed the team to advance to the Olympics for the first time since 2008.
At the Paris Games, Clay and his Canadian teammates again made history as the first Canadian men’s gymnastics team to qualify for the Olympic final.
He is continuing to train in anticipation of the 2025 season and will always remember 2024 as the year it all came together. But he also believes that the injury made him appreciate the sport more.
"“That kind of thing never leaves you, my memory of that day is still pretty vivid,” he said of the injury. “I like to think the injury actually made me a better athlete in terms of the way I train and approach life – I learned never to take anything for granted.”
The honour Clay received is presented to an individual who returns to achieve success in sport after suffering a significant or unique setback. It is named in honour of the late, great sprinter Harry Jerome, who persevered through several injuries to earn a bronze medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
For more information, visit sportbc.com.