- Ash Maloney had to withdraw from the decathlon due to injury
- Ash’s mother shared her devastation as she watched it all happen
- Alyson Maloney said she was saddened by the loss of her son
The mother of Australian decathlete Ash Maloney expressed her devastation on social media after her son was forced to withdraw from the Olympic Games due to injury.
Alyson Maloney watched from the stands in Paris as her son, who won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, was forced to withdraw from the Olympic decathlon after three events due to an adductor injury.
Maloney was in 19th place after the first three rounds on Friday – the 100 meters, long jump and shot put.
The 24-year-old has suffered a series of horrific injuries and it was “heartbreaking” for his mother to see how it all ended, and she was unhappy with the circumstances.
“It’s 4am in Paris and I can’t sleep,” she wrote on Facebook.
‘I am so heartbroken for my son. His first concern was for me and how much it cost, but money can be replaced, he cannot. What is even more heartbreaking is the media.
‘Someone points out that he missed a couple of decaths and that’s what they run with. That happens.
Ash Maloney forced to withdraw from Olympic decathlon
Maloney has suffered a shocking series of injuries in recent years
‘Blame the shady chicken, not the athlete. They don’t know……. (Which 2 years of bullshit I can’t call it) And they don’t know he trains 6 out of 7 days a week to the point of exhaustion, has backed down all his events including changing lead legs in hurdles and I’m sure they have no idea he came 4th at Gotzis and has since won at nationals and Oceania.
“Why stand in the way of a good story. In closing, good luck to all our great athletes and especially our multi-event athletes.”
Before the Games, Ash Maloney spoke about his changing relationship with his body.
“Because I was young and naive, I thought I was bulletproof,” he said.
The reigning Olympic bronze medalist was forced to withdraw before the high jump began
‘Now I have a much more stable training environment and procedures that I go through every day.
‘Back in the day, you just had to go harder, harder, harder, keep going until something broke and then just get back up and do the same thing.
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“After Tokyo I got caught. I couldn’t run properly, it was an all-or-nothing effort. Then I came to the indoor world (in 2022) and I did well, but I really injured myself in the high jump.
‘The knee I injured in Tokyo, I did worse with that and got a small tear in the patella. After that it was more or less the same story, over and over again.
‘That was when I had to miss five games in a row because of my knee.’