Dean Macey facts for kids
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname(s) | The Dean Machine | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 12 December 1977 Rochford, Essex, England |
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| Height | 1.96 metres (6 ft 5 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Decathlon | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Harrow | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | 8603 points | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Dean Macey (born 12 December 1977) is an English athlete. He is from Canvey Island in England. Dean is famous for competing in the decathlon. This is a tough athletics event with ten different challenges. He competed from 1995 to 2008.
During his career, he won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. He also earned two medals at the World Championships. Dean finished fourth twice at the Olympic Games. After injuries, he stopped competing in decathlon. He then tried bobsleigh from 2008 to 2010. Dean is also a big fan of angling (fishing). He has even hosted TV shows about fishing.
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Dean Macey's Athletics Career
Dean Macey was born in Rochford, Essex. He started in athletics by doing high jump, triple jump, and javelin throw. Later, he moved on to the decathlon. When he was younger, he also played football for Arsenal. But he chose to focus on athletics instead.
Winning Silver at the World Championships
Dean's big moment came in 1999. He won a silver medal at the 1999 World Championships in Athletics. This event took place in Seville, Spain. He scored 8556 points, which was his best score at that time. He finished second to Tomáš Dvořák from the Czech Republic. In the same year, Dean won the first-ever BBC Sports Personality of the Year Young Personality award.
Olympic Challenges
In 2000, Dean competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. He had faced some injuries that year. Even so, he achieved a new personal best score of 8567 points. But he finished in fourth place, just missing a medal. The gold medal went to Erki Nool from Estonia.
Bronze Medal at the World Championships
Dean won another medal in 2001. He earned a bronze medal at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics. This competition was held in Edmonton, Canada. He improved his personal best score again, reaching 8603 points. He finished behind Tomáš Dvořák (gold) and Erki Nool (silver).
Dealing with Injuries
Injuries caused Dean to miss important events. He could not compete in the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England. He also missed other major competitions for a while. He made his comeback in July 2004. His score of 7842 points was enough to qualify for the upcoming Summer Olympics.
Another Fourth Place at the Olympics
At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, Dean did well. This was especially true after his time away from competing. He was close to winning a medal. However, his performance in the pole vault and javelin throw was not as strong. This meant he finished fourth again. The medals went to Roman Šebrle (gold), Bryan Clay (silver), and Dmitriy Karpov (bronze).
Commonwealth Games Gold
In 2006, Dean competed at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. He was still dealing with some injuries. Despite this, he led after the first day of competition. He even set a personal best in the shot put. On the second day, his lead was challenged. This was because of injuries affecting his performance in the 110-meter hurdles and javelin.
Going into the final event, the 1500 meters, Dean needed to score more points than Jason Dudley. He ran the race in 4 minutes and 34.22 seconds. This amazing effort helped him win the gold medal by 69 points! Dean finished with a total of 8,143 points. Maurice Smith from Jamaica won silver, and Jason Dudley won bronze.
Retirement from Athletics
In 2008, Dean Macey decided to retire from athletics. He had not met the qualifying standard for the 2008 Olympic Games. He shared his thoughts on the Beijing Games in a newspaper column called "Deano's Diary."
Bobsleigh Career
After leaving athletics, Dean Macey took on a new challenge. He decided to try and qualify for the 2010 Winter Olympics in bobsleigh. He trained with former sprinter Jason Gardener. They finished sixth in a two-man bobsleigh event in Italy in 2008. Dean later worked as a commentator for bobsleigh events on Eurosport.
