You can count on one hand the number of Australians who’ll win a track and field medal at the Paris Olympics. Discus giant Matt Denny reveals to senior correspondent Mike Osborne how he’s plotting to secure gold.
Australia’s Diamond League and Commonwealth discus champion Matt Denny is like an elite sports car driver.
He’s spent the off-season building the strength and speed he needs to win gold at the Paris Olympics. Now he’s busy working on the blueprint that will steer his impressive machine through the next five months enroute to the Olympic medal dais.
“I had a really good off season and built up a lot more horsepower and now I’m working out how to tie it all together,” Denny told Sportshounds.
“The more horsepower you get, the timing changes and the speed changes, and I’m just learning again how to manage it all.”
The Denny machine is imposing. Standing just shy of two-metres tall and weighing-in at 120kg, he’s an intimidating athlete in an event dominated by hulks.
But as Denny well knows, size isn’t everything. Despite a consistent 2023 where he claimed the Diamond League trophy and set a then personal best and national record of 68.24m, he again finished a disappointing fourth at the Budapest 2023 world championships.
Denny said he was a little irked that the necessary adjustments meant he was not always winning some of his recent competitions, but the Queenslander was confident the technique and horsepower would all come together at the right time.
“I’m in a lot better form than I am throwing right now,” he said. “It’s the start of the season and I’m just trying to work through some stuff.
“Last year I started the season throwing 64m, then at the nationals I threw 62m but when the heat was on at the end of the season I threw 68m.”
This year Denny again started slowly but things came together at the nationals where he surpassed his personal best by more than a metre with a throw of 69.35m that would have won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. That performance also landed him the Betty Cuthbert Medal for most outstanding performance at the Australian Championships and resulted in immediate selection for Paris.
“It will come and that’s what these comps are for – just to etch it out for the Olympics,” he said.
“These are really important lessons – to see what shows up when you are under pressure. So when you get to the Olympics and the real heat is on you have ironed that stuff out.”
Denny is competing in an event that is as old as the ancient Olympics. His event has been famously celebrated by a 450BC bronze statue titled The Discus Thrower by Athenian sculptor Myron, which has been copied through the ages, including by the Romans in marble some 600 years later in the second century.
The 27-year-old Queenslander’s history with the discus dates to his early teens when he built a throwing circle on his family’s rural property in Allora, near Toowoomba. He went onto win the discus at the world under 18 youth championships in 2013.
He initially competed in both the discus and the hammer throw – winning a silver medal in the hammer at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games before taking gold in the discus at the Birmingham Games four years later.
After finishing just outside the medals in the discus at the Tokyo Olympics and at the past three world championships, the 27-year-old is priming his engine to reach the top of the dais at the Paris Games.
“For me it’s not about medalling, it’s about winning,” he said. “That’s what we are here to do. There is no try – there is only do. And our focus is to win the Olympics.”
Currently ranked third in the world, Denny is hoping his increased horsepower can drive him to a gold medal and elevate him to a rare place in Australian sporting history, with only seven other men having ever won Olympic track and field gold.
The seven includes Edwin Flack (1896), Herb Elliot (1960), Ralph Doubell (1968), and more recently Steve Hooker (2008) and Jared Talent (2012).
Adding his name to that list will also put Denny in exclusive company in Paris where Australia may only walk away from the athletics with a handful of medals from the field events.
Australian male Olympic gold medallists in athletics
| Edwin Flack | 800m & 1500m | Athens | 1896 |
| Nick Winter | Triple Jump | Paris | 1924 |
| John Winter | High Jump | London | 1948 |
| Herb Elliott | 1500m | Rome | 1960 |
| Ralph Doubell | 800m | Mexico | 1968 |
| Steve Hooker | Pole Vault | Beijing | 2008 |
| Jared Tallent | 50km Walk | London | 2012 |
Michael Osborne has been a journalist for more than four decades including 35 years with the national news agency Australian Associated Press, rising from junior reporter to Editor.
He was AAP Editor for 11 years and served four years as Head of Sport and Racing. He was also posted to London and Beijing as AAP’s Bureau Chief and Foreign Correspondent.
He has worked at six Olympics and five Commonwealth Games, covered tennis grand slams, golf majors, international cricket, rugby world cups and numerous sporting world championships. He also co-ordinated and managed AAP’s teams and coverage at three Olympic Games in Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
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