LIFESTYLE

Matt Denny: ‘Strength and power don’t just happen overnight’

31 July, 2023 . 0

After roaring home with Commonwealth Games gold last year, discus champion Matt Denny has the World Athletics Championships in his sights.

At 195cm tall and around 120kg, Queensland athlete Matt Denny is one formidable unit.

But in the world of elite discus, the 27-year-old hardly stands out from the pack.

“I’m not the biggest guy around … There’s guys out there six feet 10 (208cm) and 160kg,” the Brisbane star says.

However, apart from natural sporting talent, Matt does have long arms on his side – an asset for any discus thrower looking for extra leverage.

While a person’s arm span is generally about the same as their height, Matt’s is a little longer.

“My arm span’s two metres and 10 centimetres,” Matt says.

Matt Denny

How Matt Denny started his throwing career

Hailing from the tiny rural town of Allora, about 60km from Toowoomba, Matt is one of eight siblings and once dreamt of following in the footsteps of his NRL-playing brother Jonathan.

In Year 1, Matt was already throwing bean bags as shot puts and Nerf vortexes as javelins.

As a teen, he was showing great promise as a discus and hammer thrower; and by 15, he had ditched rugby league to focus on his athletic talents.

Getting to training – a 140km return trip three times a week – was definitely a challenge.

But there was one major advantage to living on a hobby farm: the family was able to build Matt his very own discus circle.

“Not everyone has 70-plus metres of space to train for discus and hammer, and throw heavy things with no one to worry about,” Matt says.

Matt Denny on the world stage

At 17, Matt made his mark early on the world stage, winning discus in the World Youth (U18) Championships.

In 2016, he competed in the Rio Olympics and in 2021, in Tokyo.

In 2022, at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Matt’s circle work saw him win gold, with a personal best throw of 67.26m.

He performed so well that any of his six throws would have landed him the same place on the podium.

But, like any world-class athlete, Matt still has major goals to achieve.

“The aim is to be a 70-plus metre thrower; that’s the goal,” Matt says.

“That’s kind of where we need to be at, to be winning gold medals at world championships and Olympics.”

Matt Denny sets the bar high

After a rocky start to this year’s domestic season, and with a new coach, Matt hopes to come into his own for the World Athletics Championships (August 19-27) and then, hopefully, the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Ultimately, Matt has set himself the goal of competing at five Olympic Games.

Fortunately, discus throwers tend to peak much later – between about 26 and 32 years old – than athletes in many other sports, Matt says.

“I’m coming into where I should be throwing the farthest in my life, which seems to be happening, so hopefully it can continue upwards.

“Strength and power doesn’t (sic) just happen overnight; it takes a lot of time to accumulate that stuff.”

For the love of discus

Matt says he’s still driven by the same things that attracted him to discus in the first place.

“I fell in love with how to move, what it takes to be a really good discus thrower, because there’s so many different moving parts,” he says.

“How do you be a really good lifter; how do you be super athletic and agile and explosive, and have the balance of a ballerina?”

Plus, there’s that delicious anticipation of building up to a huge event.

“When I’m in really good nick, I feel like I could shoot lightning from my fingers – you just feel so energetic and excited and like you’re living on the edge of life,” Matt says.

More champions to inspire you:

Chemist Warehouse, in partnership with Athletics Australia, supports athletes from grassroots to elite level.

Written by Larissa Ham.