 Denny in 2018 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nickname | Matty |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Born | 2 June 1996 Toowoomba, Australia |
| Education | Toowoomba Grammar School, [1] Griffith University |
| Height | 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) [2] |
| Weight | 120 kg (265 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Athletics |
| Event(s) | Discus throw, hammer throw |
Matthew Denny (born 2 June 1996) is an Australian athlete specialising in the discus throw. [3] He won the bronze medal in the men's discus throw at the Paris 2024 Olympics. [4]
Denny grew up in the small town of Allora (population 1000), located 60 km outside Toowoomba and 150 km south-west of Brisbane. He had plenty of space to throw things. For example, in Grade 1 at primary school he threw bean bags as shot puts and vortexes as javelins. His main focus, though, until grade 8 or 9, was rugby league. Denny was one of eight siblings and just wanted to be as good as his rugby-playing brothers. [5]
In his teens Denny turned his attention to athletics and built a homemade discus circle on his family's rural property. In 2013, he won the World Under 18 Youth Championships discus title and then came fourth at the 2014 Under 20 World Junior Championships. He then won a silver medal at the 2015 Summer Universiade. [5]
In April 2016, Denny won the national discus title with a throw of 60.47m and the hammer title with 68.44m. [6] He became just the second athlete in the near 100-year history of the event to win this double and the first since Keith Pardon in 1953 – 63 years earlier.[ citation needed ]
Denny represented his country in the discus at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro without qualifying for the final. Denny then competed at the Commonwealth Games trials in February 2018. With just 14 hours separating the hammer and discus events, he required just one valid hammer throw to claim the title and automatic Commonwealth Games selection. Denny also won the discus. With selection in both events, he became the second Australian athlete, and first in 68 years, to compete in both events at the Commonwealth Games, following Keith Pardon who competed in the same pair at the 1938 and 1950 Empire Games. [5]
In February 2020 in Wellington New Zealand, Denny threw a personal best of 65.47m. In March 2021 he won the national title with 63.88m, but still remained short of the Olympic standard. In June 2021 on the Gold Coast, Queensland he qualified with a 68cm personal best of 66.15m which moved him from fifth to third Australian all-time. [5]
Denny qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and competed in the final having thrown 65.13 m in his Men's discus throw qualification. He came very close to a medal, throwing 67.02 m which was just 0.05 m less than the bronze medalist, Lukas Weißhaidinger of Austria. [7] [8]
In the Paris 2024 Olympics, Denny secured the bronze medal in the men's discus throw with a throw of 69.31 meters, earning him a spot on the podium alongside gold medalist Rojé Stona and silver medalist Mykolas Alekna. [4] His throw was amongst the longest in Olympic history. [9]
Denny threw a meeting record 69.96m to win the 2024 Diamond League final in Brussels, Belgium. [10]
His personal best in discus is 69.35 m set in Adelaide in 2024. His personal best in the hammer throw is 74.88 m set in Gold Coast in 2018.
Virgilijus Alekna is a Lithuanian former discus thrower and politician. He won medals at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics, including two golds.
Koji Alexander Murofushi, is a former Japanese hammer thrower and sports scientist. He has been among the world elite since the 2001 World Championships, where he won the silver medal. He was the 2004 Olympic champion. In 2011, he was crowned world champion.
Dilshod Jamoliddinovich Nazarov is a Tajik track and field athlete who specializes in the hammer throw. He has represented his country at the Olympic Games on four occasions, winning the gold medal in Rio de Janeiro, the first gold medal for Tajikistan in the history of the Olympic Games.
The men's discus throw was an event at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. Twenty athletes from 15 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The qualifying round and the final both were held on Tuesday November 27, 1956. The event was won by Al Oerter of the United States, the nation's second consecutive and ninth overall victory in the men's discus throw. It was the first of four straight gold medals for Oerter. The United States earned its second medal sweep in the event, as Fortune Gordien took silver and Des Koch took bronze. Gordien became the fifth man to win two medals in the event, and the first to do so in non-consecutive Games. Italy's three-Games medal streak in the event ended.
Dani Stevens is an Australian retired discus thrower who in 2009 became the youngest ever female world champion in the event. She is the current national and Oceanian record holder.
Robert 'Bob' Boyd Weir is a male retired English athlete, best known as a discus thrower, who was a twelve-time national champion. Weir also achieved success in hammer throw, winning Commonwealth Games gold in 1982, and competed in strongman competitions.
Robert Harting is a retired German discus thrower. He represents the sports club SCC Berlin, his coach is Torsten Schmidt. He is a former Olympic, World, and European champion in the men's discus throw. His younger brother Christoph is the event's 2016 Olympic champion.
Julian Edward Wruck is an Australian discus thrower and Olympic athlete. His personal best to date is 68.16m which places him as the Number 2 athlete on the All Time List of Australian discus throwers.
Aled Siôn Davies is a British Paralympian athlete competing mainly in category F42 throwing events. In 2012 he became the world record holder of the F42 shot put and in the 2012 Summer Paralympics he took the bronze medal in shot put and gold in the discus. In 2013 Davies took the World Championship gold in both the shot put and discus in Lyon. He won double gold in his home country at the 2014 IPC Athletics European Championships in the shot put and discus. This followed his silver medal in the F42-44 discus from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where he represented Wales. Davies also took part in the Channel 4 TV series Celebrity SAS: Who dares wins
Tomas Walsh is a New Zealand athlete who competes mainly in the shot put. He is the current national record holder both outdoors and indoors for the event. His personal best of 22.90 m, set in Doha, 5 October 2019, is also the Oceanian record and makes him the seventh best shot putter in history.
The discus throw is one of four track and field throwing events held at the Summer Olympics. The men's discus throw has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896. The women's event was first contested at the 1928 Olympics, being one of the five athletics events in the inaugural Olympic women's programme.
The hammer throw at the Summer Olympics is one of four track and field throwing events held at the multi-sport event. The men's hammer throw has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900, becoming the third Olympic throws event after the shot put and discus throw. The women's event was a much later addition, being first contested at the 2000 Olympics.
Timothy "Tim" Nedow is a Canadian track and field athlete who competes in the shot put and discus throw. He has personal bests of 21.33 m in the shot put and 61.49 m in the discus throw. He was the bronze medalist at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2013 Francophonie Games and a five-time champion of the Canadian Track and Field Championships. He has also competed at the World Championships in Athletics, in 2013, and twice at the Summer Universiade. He studied and competed athletically at the University of Tulsa and DePaul University.
Guy Nicholas Henly is an Australian Paralympic athlete. He currently competes in discus and shot put and has won medals at the 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2023 World Para Athletics Championships. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Alexander Melei Rose is a Samoan-American athlete, competing primarily in the discus throw and occasionally in the shot put and the hammer throw. He represented Samoa at the 2016 Olympics, and 2020 Summer Olympics, as well as the Commonwealth Games and Pacific Games.
Ryan Crouser is an American track and field athlete who competes in the shot put and discus. He specializes in the shot put, in which he is the only three-time Olympic gold medalist, having won in Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Paris, and also a two-time World Champion. He holds the world record in the shot put, both indoors and outdoors. He set the outdoor world record at 23.56 meters in May 2023, improving upon his previous record of 23.37 m from July 2021. He has held the indoor record of 22.82 m since January 2021.
Mykolas Alekna is a Lithuanian athlete who specializes in the discus throw. He is the current world record holder of the event with 74.35 metres. At the age of 19, he won the silver medal at the 2022 World Championships, becoming the youngest world discus medallist in history. Alekna was then the youngest ever winner in his discipline at the 2022 European Championships, setting the competition record in the process.
Ethan Katzberg is a Canadian hammer thrower. He is the reigning Olympic and world champion in that event, winning gold in Paris at the 2024 Summer Olympics and in Budapest at the 2023 World Championships. He is also the 2023 Pan American champion and the 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist.
Roje Stona is a Jamaican track and field athlete who competes in the discus throw. He broke the Olympic record to win the gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics, thus becoming the first Jamaican to be Olympic Champion at a throwing event.
The men's discus throw at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held in Paris, France, on 5 and 7 August 2024.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) Commonwealth Games champions in men's discus throw | |
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 Diamond League champions in men's discus throw | |
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World University Games champions in men's discus throw | |
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