Personal information | |
---|---|
Nickname | The Dean Machine [1] [2] |
Born | Rochford, Essex, England | 12 December 1977
Height | 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) |
Sport | |
Event | Decathlon |
Club | Harrow |
Achievements and titles | |
Personal best | 8603 points |
Medal record |
Dean Macey (born 12 December 1977) is an English athlete from Canvey Island. He is best known for competing in the decathlon, which he did from 1995 to 2008, winning the Commonwealth Games decathlon, two World Championship medals, as well as twice finishing fourth in the Olympic Games. Retiring from decathlon due to injury, he competed in the bobsleigh between 2008 and 2010.
A popular media figure during and after his athletics career, he is a keen angler and has presented an angling television series "On Coarse" for the Discovery Channel, [3] and "Fishing Allstars" on ITV4. He has also set a record time (0:56) on the Total Wipeout Qualifier. After his athletics and bobsleigh careers being a keen Angler he went on to make a series of fishing videos on YouTube and was sponsored by Guru
Macey was born in Rochford, Essex. He started out in athletics as a high jumper, triple jumper and javelin thrower but graduated up through the octathlon to settle on the decathlon. He was also on the books of Arsenal as a youngster but gave up football to train for the World Junior Championships in 1995. Macey's major breakthrough was when he won silver medal at the 1999 World Championships in Athletics in the Olympic Stadium, Seville, Spain with a personal best of 8556 points finishing behind gold medallist Tomáš Dvořák of the Czech Republic. Macey was the inaugural winner of BBC Sports Personality of the Year Young Personality in 1999.
The following year at the 2000 Summer Olympics, Sydney, Australia, after an injury ravaged year, Macey recorded another personal best score of 8567 points but could only finish fourth. The title was won by Estonian, Erki Nool but only after an appeal when earlier in the day the referee overruled his field judges and ruled out Erki's discus throw of 43.66 metres. The appeal was successful and the Estonian took gold ahead of the Czech, Roman Šebrle and American Chris Huffins.
Macey was back amongst the medals at the 2001 World Championships in the Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, improving on his personal best yet again, with 8603 points finishing with the bronze medal, once again behind Tomáš Dvořák (gold medal), and Erki Nool (silver medal).
Injuries forced Macey to miss the 2002 Commonwealth Games, held at the City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester, England and all other major competitions until making his comeback at Hexham, England, July 2004. He worked for BBC TV during the Commonwealth Games. [2]
His score in Hexham of 7842 points was, purposely, just enough to meet the B qualifying standard of 7700 for the upcoming Summer Olympic Games.
At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece Dean performed well, in view of the recent years away from competition, but with a possible medal in his grasp, a below par pole vault and javelin throw once again left him in fourth place at an Olympic competition behind Roman Šebrle (gold), Bryan Clay (silver) and Dmitriy Karpov (bronze).
At the 2006 Commonwealth Games, despite still nursing some injuries, Macey led after the first day with a personal best of 15.83 metres in the last round of the shot put. Over the course of the second day, that gap was reduced and overhauled by the Australian Jason Dudley because of injury-hampered performances in the 110 m hurdles and the javelin. Going into the final event, the 1500 metres, Macey needed to score 38 points more than Dudley to claim gold. He completed the event in 4:34.22, which gave him the gold medal by 69 points. Dean finished with a total of 8,143 points, ahead of the Jamaican Maurice Smith (silver) and Dudley (bronze).
In 2008 after a failure to reach the B Qualifying standard for the 2008 Olympic Games, at the Hexham International Combined Events Meeting, Macey admitted that he was considering his future. Young decathlete Daniel Awde was selected for the Olympics. On 15 July, he decided to retire from athletics. [4] Macey wrote a regular Olympic column in the Southend Echo newspaper entitled "Deano's Diary" in which he shared his views on the Beijing Games. [5]
In 2009, Dean Macey completed the Men's Health Survival of the Fittest 10 km run in Edinburgh, Scotland, recording a time in excess of 1 hour 15 minutes.
Macey worked as part of the commentary team for Radio 5 Live's coverage of the 2010 Commonwealth Games and Al Jazeera Sports' coverage of the 2010 Asian Games, as well as Channel 4's screening of the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships. [2]
During his athetics career, Macey gained the nickname 'The Chav's Chav'.
After his retirement from athletics, Macey accepted a challenge to attempt to qualify for the 2010 Winter Olympics in the bobsleigh. [6] He trained with former sprinter Jason Gardener. The pair finished sixth in the two-man event at the 2008 British Bobsleigh Championships held in Cesana Pariol, Italy. [7] Subsequently, he worked for Eurosport as a regular part of the commentary team for the channel's bobsleigh coverage. [2]
Erki Nool is an Estonian decathlete and former politician.
Jason Carl Gardener, is a retired British sprint athlete. A fast starter from the blocks, he won an Olympic gold medal leading off Great Britain in the 4 x 100 metres relay at the 2004 Olympic Games, and is also the 2004 World Indoor Champion, and a four-time European Indoor champion, at 60 metres.
Czech Republic competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. This was the nation's third appearance at the Summer Olympics after gaining its independence from the former Czechoslovakia. The Czech Olympic Committee sent the nation's largest team to the Games since the post-Czechoslovak era. A total of 142 athletes, 80 men and 62 women, competed in 19 sports; the nation's team size was roughly denser from Sydney by one sixth of the athletes. Women's basketball was the only team-based sport in which the Czech Republic had its representation at these Olympic Games. There was only a single competitor in equestrian, artistic and trampoline gymnastics, judo, and weightlifting.
Roman Šebrle is a retired decathlete from the Czech Republic. He is considered to be one of the best decathlon athletes of all time. Originally a high jumper, he later switched to the combined events and is a former world record holder in the decathlon, holding the record for over eleven years. In 2001 in Götzis he became the first decathlete ever to achieve over 9,000 points, setting the record at 9,026 points, succeeding his compatriot, Tomáš Dvořák, who had scored 8,994 points two years earlier.
Estonia competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. This was the nation's ninth appearance at the Summer Olympics.
Michael Cameron "Mike" Smith is a Canadian decathlete from Kenora, Ontario.
Chris Huffins is an athlete from the United States who competed in the field of Decathlon. He was the Director and Head Coach of the Men's and Women's Track and Field and Cross Country programs at the University of California from 2002 to 2007. He married Monique Parker in 1997 with whom he had one son Zachary. He earned a degree from the University of California in Political Economies of Industrial Societies in 2007. Huffins is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He is currently married to Tamika Huffins with whom he had another son, Jaxon.
Romain Barras is a French decathlete. At the Universiade he finished fifth in 2001 and first in 2003, the latter in a personal-best score of 8,196 points. He represented France at the 2004 Summer Olympics and came in thirteenth place overall in the decathlon. He became the regional champion at the 2005 Mediterranean Games.
The Men's Decathlon at the 2000 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held at the Stadium Australia on Wednesday 27 September and Thursday 28 September 2000.
Peter John Gabbett is a former holder of the British record for the decathlon. He is widely regarded as the first British decathlete to achieve world class performances in this event. He won the AAA Championships on three occasions, finished second in the 1970 Commonwealth Games, was sixth in the European Championships, and twice competed in the Olympic Games.
Gregory Roy Richards is a retired male decathlete from England.
Ashton James Eaton is a retired American decathlete and two-time Olympic champion, who holds the world record in the indoor heptathlon event. Eaton was the second decathlete to break the 9,000-point barrier in the decathlon, with 9,039 points, a score he bettered on August 29, 2015, when he beat his own world record with a score of 9,045 points, and remains the only person to exceed 9000 points twice. His world record was broken by Frenchman Kevin Mayer on September 16, 2018, with a total of 9,126 points, who became the third man to pass the 9,000-point barrier.
Daniel "Dan" Awde is a British 400 metres runner and former decathlete who has twice competed at the Summer Olympic Games.
Damian David George Warner is a Canadian track and field athlete specializing in decathlon. He is the 2020 Olympic champion and a four-time world medallist. Warner also won the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics and was the 2014 Commonwealth champion and a two-time Pan American champion from the 2015 and 2019 Games. Competing in the heptathlon, he is the 2022 World Indoor champion.
Kevin Mayer is a French athlete specialising in decathlon and indoor heptathlon. He is two-time world champion, two-time Olympic silver medalist and the world record holder in the decathlon since 2018. He is also a world and three-time European champion in heptathlon.
Zach Ziemek is an American athlete competing in the decathlon. Ziemek won the bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene with a personal best score of 8676. In 2021 he finished 6th at the Tokyo Olympics. He represented his country at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, where he finished 15th. Ziemek finished 7th in the decathlon at the 2016 Olympics.
Mourad Mahour Ahmed Bacha is an Algerian former track and field athlete who competed in the decathlon and javelin throw. Bacha was among the foremost African and Arab decathletes in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Cedric Dubler is an Australian decathlete.
Pierce LePage is a Canadian track athlete who competes in the decathlon. He is the 2023 World champion, and the first Canadian to win the decathlon title at the World Athletics Championships. LePage is also the 2022 World silver medalist, 2018 Commonwealth silver medallist, and 2019 Pan American bronze medallist. LePage represented Canada at the 2020 Summer Olympics, finishing in fifth place.
Jason Dudley is an Australian former decathlete.