Declan Tingay

As a junior athlete, Declan Tingay has been one of Australia’s very finest and now aged 22, he is transitioning nicely into senior competition.

“I started Little Athletics when I was five, my parents encouraged me into the sport because both parents wanted to give me an opportunity to play sport, and the athletics club was the most local to us,” Declan recalled.

“Around U14s, my coach and one of my friends, who were both walkers inspired me try the event semi-seriously. I got to the point where the walk was the only thing I was good at, so I stuck with it.”

After just missing the national U18 5000m walk record by a second, he easily took the Australian U20 10,000m walk record when placing an outstanding fourth at the 2018 World Junior U20 Championships in a time of 40:49.72. His fourth place was second only to Nathan Deakes, but superior to Olympians Dane Bird-Smith, Jared Tallent, Nick A’Hern and Luke Adams at that championship.

Also, in 2018 he won bronze as a member of the national U20 team at the World Race Walking Championships in China. After unfortunately being disqualified in his next international outing at the 2019 World University Games, in 2021 he smashed his PBs from the 5000m to the 20km walk.

Selected for his Olympic debut in Tokyo he strode home in the second half of the 20km race walk, moving from 20th mid-way to 17th at the finish line to achieve a personal best time of 1:24.00 in the stifling Sapporo heat.

"I'm sore, tired and hot, but mostly sore. It wasn't the most fantastic performance, but I had a very fun time out there," Declan said. "My goal was to finish among the top-30. I obviously didn't want to get disqualified either. I guess I've under promised and over delivered.”

In 2022 he represented Australian on three occasions, 10th at the World Race Walking Teams Championships (& 4th in the teams event), 17th at the World Championships and a silver in the 10,000m walk at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

In the summer of 2023, he further reduced his PB to 1:20.20 at the Oceania Champs ahead of a 94 seconds PB of 1:18.46 in Japan in March. The time elevated him to number two Australian all-time. But he was not done with PBs in 2023, going on to clock 1:18.30 for an amazing 8th at the World Championships in Budapest.

After missing the 2024 Olympic selection trials in February with injury, Declan was back in form quickly clocking 1:20.00 for 20km walk in March in China, then just missing his own national 10,000m track walk record as he claimed the national title in April.

Two weeks later at the World Teams Race Walking Championships in Turkey, he combined with Bec Henderson to qualify an Australian team for the Paris Olympics in the new event, the marathon race walk mixed relay. They placed 16th, qualifying a second Australian team by two places and 25 seconds.

Selected for his second Olympic Games, Declan walked brilliantly in the 20km event, placing 11th in a time of 1:19.56. It was just outside the fastest ever time recorded by an Aussie at the Olympics and only once had Australia placed higher since the London 2012 Olympics. He then teamed up with Bec Henderson in the Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay which placed 22nd.