Charlie Hunter

Fast Facts

Sport: Athletics
Event: 800m
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020
Club: Asics Wests
Year Born: 1996
State Born: NSW

About Charlie

Growing up on the NSW Central Coast Charlie Hunter was more likely to be swimming and surfing than running. At school football and rugby were his chosen sports, however, athletics was always in the picture joining Little Athletics as an under-9.

“I’ve always been somewhat of a runner but only started training specifically for athletics when I turned 18. For my junior years I considered myself a runner but never trained like one and was more tailored towards triathlons,” said Hunter.

Post high school (graduated 2014) he won the national U20 1500m during his gap year. In 2017, as a 21-year-old, Hunter saw his times start to improve from 3:50 to 3:41 and reached out to Oregon University for a scholarship. He was now a mature student and the process took 18 months. He recalled thinking if he didn’t get a scholarship his athletics career was over. He started at Oregon in 2018 and made the NCAA 1500m final in his first season (2019). 

In his second year, he was set for a big 2020 indoor season, where in early races he had taken 12 seconds from his mile PB, he recalls being in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ready to compete at the NCAA Indoors when the day before the championships they were cancelled due to COVID. Making things worse, his parents were travelling to watch him compete. The next day Hunter was back in Oregon and the following day he flew back to Australia. Shortly after the Olympics were postponed.

During his six months back in Australia he recalls how different training was, instead of training at one of the best venues in the world ‘TrackTown USA’, he was running on a treadmill in his garage looking at a brick wall. He said it made him value his time in Oregon and after six months he returned.

In his first three races in 2021 he broke the Australian indoor records at 800m and the mile twice, clocking stunning times of 1:45.59 and 3:53.49. At the NCAAs he won two gold, in the individual 800m and as a member of the medley relay. In the 2021 outdoor NCAAs he was third in the 800m running, clocking two outdoor PBs of 1:45.75, then 1:45.23.

Two weeks later he destroyed his indoor and outdoor PBs clocking 1:44.35 – making him second fastest in Australian history. He was selected to don the green and gold at the Tokyo Olympics, where made his Olympic debut in the men's 800m. 

In Tokyo he became part of Australian history as a record three Aussies progressed to the 800m semi-finals, but it was a battle for Charlie. In his heat he was checked and lost momentum at a key moment of the race, but was happy to progress as a non-automatic qualifier in fourth (1:45.91). The rough racing continued for Charlie, the first Aussie in action, in semi-final 1. He got a push in the back after 250 metres and then moved forward to be positioned second with 300m to run. Again, the Aussie got checked coming into the final bend and with the pace on at the front his chance of progressing were over. The 25-year-old on Olympic debut placed seventh in 1:46.73.