Ashley Moloney (born 13 March 2000) is an Australian

decathlete The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄθ ...

.Ashley Moloney , Profile , worldathletics.org
Accessed 5 August 2021 He won bronze at the

2020 Olympic Games The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

, the first Australian decathlete to win an Olympic medal.

Early years

Moloney attended school in Browns Plains, a suburb in Logan Qld. Moloney was the fastest at primary school and enjoyed the crowd that gathered when he broke school high jump records. He competed in jumps, triple/high/pole and sprints for his school, region and state. In 2015, aged 15, he won the Australian All Schools U16 high jump title with a leap of 2.00 metres. Moloney then he competed in his first combined event on just two weeks of training. Moloney's coach, Eric Brown, believed that Moloney could make the Olympics as a decathlete with a lot of hard work. In early 2016, in his second competition, he won the national U18 title, just days after he turned 16. In September 2016, he tallied 7328 with a sub-11 100m, 14+ metres in the shot, sub-14 hurdles, 4.60m vault and 4:50 1500m.

Achievements

In 2017 Moloney broke the U18 Australian Decathlon Points Record previously held by

Jake Stein Jake Stein (born 17 January 1994) is an Australian rules footballer with the Gold Coast Suns in the Australian Football League (AFL) and a former track and field athlete specialising in the decathlon. He previously played for the Greater W ...

. He won the gold medal at the 2018 World Junior Championships in Tampere. In achieving this result, Moloney broke the Competition Record, previously held by

Niklas Kaul Niklas Kaul (; born 11 February 1998) is a German athlete competing in the combined events. He won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 2019 World Championships, becoming the youngest ever decathlon world champion. In addition, he won go ...

, and the Oceania Junior Record previously held by Cedric Dubler. At the mid-2019 Oceania Championships, while still a teenager, Moloney scored 8103 points with the senior implements, raising the prospect of qualifying for the 2020 Olympics. Although injury in early 2020 threatened Ash's Olympic dream, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the Tokyo Olympics to be postponed and Ash and his training partner Cedric Dubler were able to qualify for them at the end of 2020. In doing so Moloney broke the Australian senior and

Oceanian Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million as of ...

records for the Decathlon, increasing

Jagan Hames Jagan Graeme Hames (born 31 October 1975) is a retired decathlete from Australia, who won the gold medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games The 1998 Commonwealth Games ''( Malay: Sukan Komanwel 1998)'', officially known as the XVI Commonwealt ...

's previous records by 2 points to 8492 points. In winning bronze at the

, the first Australian decathlete to medal at an Olympics, he further improved the Oceanian and Australian record to 8649 points. Needing to complete the final 1500m event within several seconds of his closest points competitors, or better, the efforts of Ashley's fellow Australian decathlete Cedric Dubler to motivate him in the final stages of this race were lauded by the Australian and even world media as one of the most memorable moments of the Tokyo Olympics. Ash competed in the 2022 World Indoor Athletics Championships in the

Men's Heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hept ...

where he finished the first day's competition in third place with 3,551 points. He finished in 3rd place with 6344 points, an Oceania Area Record and the highest third place tally ever for an indoor heptathlon.

Personal bests

Outdoor Indoor

International competition record

Personal life

Moloney joined the

Jimboomba Jimboomba is a town and locality in the City of Logan, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Jimboomba had a population of 13,201 people. Geography Jimboomba is situated on the Mount Lindesay Highway, by road south-east of Logan Ce ...

Little Athletics Club when he was 12 years old. He hails from

Logan Logan may refer to: Places * Mount Logan (disambiguation) Australia * Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly * Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud * Logan City, local gover ...

in Southeast Queensland. He attended Regents Park State School and

Browns Plains Browns Plains is a suburb in the City of Logan, Queensland, Australia. In the , Browns Plains had a population of 6,309 people. Browns Plains is generally used as a name for both the Browns Plains suburb and the former estates which all utilise ...

State High School.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Moloney, Ashley Living people 2000 births Australian decathletes World Athletics U20 Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Australia Olympic decathletes Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic bronze medalists for Australia World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists