Olympic Gold Medalist Skewers The Internet After Throwing Javelin To Remove Daughter's Loose Tooth

GLENDORA (CBSLA.com) — Parents through time have clever methods to remove their children's loose teeth.

The old string and doorknob trick was always a good one. There was also letting nature takes it course. But those are apparently so ... yesterday.

When Olympic gold medal decathlete Bryan Clay used a javelin to do the deed and posted the video on Twitter, he had no idea what kind of firestorm he was about to bite off.

The story and video have gone international. Many comments were supportive, many were sarcastic. Many were just funny.

Fellow Olympian Lolo Jones tweeted: "I never got my wisdom teeth out. I'm coming over #freedental."

Clay spoke about the video to KCAL9's Peter Daut.

First, he showed off some of his medals. "The gold is from Beijing, the silver is from Athens," he says.

Clay, a 35-year-old Glendora resident, and his wife took 5-year-old daughter Ellie to the track at Azusa Pacific University, where they filmed the unique tooth pull.

He told Daut that Ellie's older brother and sister also came up with cool ways to loose their baby teeth and all he and his wife were doing was giving Ellie options.

The 5-year-old first thought of tying her tooth to one of her brother's drones but came around to think her mom's idea was best.

His wife had first mentioned the javelin idea. From that moment on, Ellie was the most excited to go the track and field route.

And while Clay initially didn't want to participate fearing negative comments, he relented because he said Ellie remained so gung-ho to try it. He thought people might think it "cruel and mean, that sort of thing. But she convinced me she really, really wanted to do it."

So, he says they waited as long as possible --  the tooth was hanging by a thread -- then tied the tooth to the javelin with dental floss.

In the video, you hear his wife say, "Say goodbye to the tooth!" before he counts down.

Ellie barely flinched when the tooth went airborne. Her siblings run to retrieve the tooth, which ended up about 30 meters away (Dad really did earn that medal!)

The tooth was there, still attached to the dental floss.

"It worked really, really well," he said. "It went really, really smoothly."

Ellie barely felt it, she said.

Daut asked her if it hurt.

"No," she said.

Ellie got a visit -- and nice note, and some money -- from the Tooth Fairy. All in all, she told Daut, she'd like a gold medal.

"I think that it's cool," she said.

For more about Clay, visit his official site.