Ashley Moloney

Ashley Moloney (born 13 March 2000) is an Australian decathlete. He won bronze at the 2020 Olympic Games, the first Australian to win an Olympic medal in the decathlon.

Early life 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 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. previously held by Jake Stein.

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, 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 Moloney and his training partner Dubler were able to qualify for them at the end of 2020. In doing so Moloney broke the Australian senior and Oceanian records for the Decathlon, increasing Jagan Hames's previous records by 2 points to 8492 points.

In winning bronze at the 2020 Olympic Games, 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.

Moloney competed in the 2022 World Indoor Athletics Championships in the Men's Heptathlon 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.

Moloney was unable to finish the decathlon at the 2024 Summer Olympics after suffering an adductur injury during the long jump. In 2026, he began to focus on the 400m hurdles. He placed third in the 400 m hurdles at the Australian Championships on 12 April 2026, finishing behind Kyle Bennett and national champion Matthew Hunt.

Personal bests Outdoor

Event Performance Location Date Points Decathlon Tokyo 4–5 August 2021 8,649 points 100 metres 10.34 (+0.2 m/s) Tokyo 4 August 2021 1,013 points Long jump (+0.5 m/s) Brisbane 16 December 2023 1,002 points Shot put Götzis 27 May 2023 802 pointsHigh jump Brisbane 19 December 2020 915 points 400 metres 45.82 Brisbane 19 December 2020 1,017 points 110 metres hurdles 14.08 (-1.0 m/s) Tokyo 5 August 2021 964 points Discus throw Suva 3 June 2024 804 points Pole vault Cairns 18 July 2021 926 points Javelin throw Brisbane 20 December 2020 704 points 1500 metres 4:39.19 Tokyo 5 August 2021 685 points Virtual Best Performance 8,832 points

Indoor

Event Performance Location Date Points Heptathlon Belgrade 18–19 March 2022 6,344 points 60 metres 6.70 Belgrade 18 March 2022 992 points Long jump Belgrade 18 March 2022 1,015 points Shot put Belgrade 18 March 2022 758 points High Jump Belgrade 18 March 2022 822 points 60 metres hurdles 7.88 Belgrade 19 March 2022 1,012 points Pole vault Belgrade 19 March 2022 941 points 1000 metres 2:43.01 Belgrade 19 March 2022 840 points Virtual Best Performance 6,344 points

International competition record

Personal life Moloney joined the Jimboomba Little Athletics Club when he was 12 years old. He hails from Logan in Southeast Queensland. He attended Regents Park State School and Browns Plains State High School.