Nathan Deakes

Nathan Deakes
Personal information
Born	17 August 1977 (age 46)
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	66 kg (146 lb)
Sport
Country	Australia
Sport	Athletics
Event	50km Race Walk
Medal record
Olympic Games
World Championships
Commonwealth Games
World Race Walking Cup

Nathan Deakes (born 17 August 1977 in Geelong) is an Australian former race walker. Deakes trained with the Australian Institute of Sport.

By performances, Deakes is Australia's best and most successful ever race walker, winning several international medals and holding many Australian and World Records. He was the 2006 Australian Male Athlete of the year, Australia's most prestigious sporting award across all sports.^[1]

He won a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and is a four-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist. He won gold in the 20 km walk and 50 km walk events at both the 2002 Manchester Games and the 2006 Melbourne Games, becoming the first man to win both the 20 km and 50 km walks at two consecutive Commonwealth Games. He also won bronze medals at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Games and the 1996 World Junior Championships. He was also among the leading duo at the Athens Olympics in the 50 km walk, until being disqualified. He won the gold medal at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka in the 50 km walk.^[2]

To cap off a successful 2007, Deakes was crowned 2007 Telstra Male Athlete of the Year for the second time (the first being in 2004).

He also broke the 50 km walk world record on 2 December 2006 at the Australian 50 km Road Walking Championships in Geelong, recording a time of 3:35.47. This bettered race walking great Robert Korzeniowski's previous world record of 3:36.03. He is also 4th all-time for the 20 km walk, 1:17.33, and 7th all-time for the 20,000m walk, 1:19.47.^[2]

Deakes also won the last edition of the Goodwill Games in Brisbane 2001. He beat a strong field consisting of the current Olympic Champion, Robert Korzeniowski, and the then current World Champion, Roman Rasskazov.

On 21 July 2008 Deakes announced that he would withdraw from the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, with a hamstring tendon injury that required surgery to repair.

His last competitive outing came at the 2012 London Olympics, where he competed despite a year riddled with injury and finished 19th in the 50 km walk. He retired from the sport officially in February 2013,^[3] and became a Board Member soon after for Athletics AustraliaIn 2018 he was appointed as a member of the Athletics Integrity Unit Anti-Doping Panel.

Deakes has completed university academic qualifications with a double degree in Banking & Finance and Law (Honours) from the University of Canberra, a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Australian National University and a Masters in Law with a Sports Law specialisation from the University of Melbourne. He is published in the area of sports integrity.^[2]

Inaugural inductee to University of Canberra Sport Walk of Fame in 2022.^[4]

References

^ "Nathan Deakes". Australian Olympic Committee. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Nathan DEAKES". Olympics.com. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
^ Race walker Deakes announces retirement. IAAF. Retrieved 2013-03-04.
^ "Walk of Fame Members". University of Canberra. 18 November 2022. Retrieved 18 November 2022.

Nathan Deakes at Australian Athletics Historical Results
Nathan Deakes at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)

External links

Official website
Nathan Deakes at World Athletics
Nathan Deakes at the Australian Olympic Committee
Nathan Deakes at Olympics.com

Records
Preceded by Robert Korzeniowski	Men's 50 km walk world record holder 2 December 2006 – 11 May 2008	Succeeded by Denis Nizhegorodov
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Philippe Rizzo	Australian Athlete of the Year 2007 (with Anna Meares)	Succeeded by Ken Wallace and Heath Francis