Ashley Moloney

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.[5] 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 years of age. 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.[5]

Moloney won the gold medal at the 2018 World Junior Championships in Tampere.[6] In achieving this result, Moloney broke the Competition Record, previously held by Niklas Kaul, and Oceania Junior Record,[7] previously held by Cedric Dubler. In 2017, Moloney broke the U18 Australian Record in Decathlon,[8] previously held by Jake Stein. On 20 December, Moloney broke the Australian National record and Oceanian Record for the Decathlon. Moloney increased the previous record by 2 points, raising Jagan Hames's record of 8490 points to 8492 points.

At the mid-2019 Oceania Championships, while still a teenager, he scored 8103 points with the senior implements, setting himself up for a 2019/2020 summer crack at an Olympic qualifier. But injury initially prevented that attempt, then COVID hit, then at the end of 2020, on a warm day in Brisbane, with his training partner Cedric Dubler alongside him, they both qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.[5]

As of 5 August 2021[1]

Moloney joined the Jimboomba Little Athletics Club when he was 12 years old.[9] He hails from Logan in Southeast Queensland. He attended Regents Park State School and Browns Plains State High School.[10][11]

• Ashley Moloney at World Athletics