View source for Dean Macey

{{Short description|English athlete}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2012}}
{{Infobox sportsperson
| name           = Dean Macey
| image          = 
| imagesize      = <!--Only for images narrower than 220 pixels.-->
| caption        = 
| birth_name     = 
| fullname       = 
| nickname       = The Dean Machine<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.espn.co.uk/athletics/sport/story/36503.html |title=Athletics - Where Are They Now? The ten talents of Dean Macey |last1=Carter |first1=Jo |date=29 July 2010 |website=[[ESPN (UK)]] |accessdate=26 January 2014}}</ref><ref name=c4>{{cite web |url=http://athletics.channel4.com/channel4-analysis-team/pundit=deanmacey/ |title=IAAF World Indoor Athletics 2012 Istanbul - Dean Macey |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |publisher=[[Channel 4]]|accessdate=26 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202224133/http://athletics.channel4.com/channel4-analysis-team/pundit=deanmacey/ |archive-date=2 February 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
| nationality    = 
| residence      = 
| birth_date      = {{birth date and age|1977|12|12|df=y}}
| birth_place     = [[Rochford]], [[Essex]], [[England]]
| height         = {{convert|1.96|m|ftin}}
| weight         = 
| website        = 
| country        = 
| sport          = 
| event          = [[Decathlon]]
| collegeteam    = 
| club           = Harrow
| team           = 
| turnedpro      = 
| coach          = 
| retired        = 
| coaching       = 
| worlds         = 
| regionals      = 
| nationals      = 
| olympics       = 
| paralympics    = 
| highestranking = 
| pb             = 8603 points
| medaltemplates = {{Medal|Sport | Men's [[Athletics (sport)|athletics]]}}
{{Medal|Competition|[[IAAF World Championships in Athletics|World Championships]]}}
{{Medal|Silver| [[1999 World Championships in Athletics|1999 Seville]] |[[1999 World Championships in Athletics - Men's Decathlon|Decathlon]]}}
{{Medal|Bronze| [[2001 World Championships in Athletics|2001 Edmonton]] |[[2001 World Championships in Athletics - Men's Decathlon|Decathlon]]}}
{{Medal|Comp|[[Athletics at the Commonwealth Games|Commonwealth Games]]}}
{{Medal|Country|{{ENG}}}} 
{{Medal|Gold|[[2006 Commonwealth Games|2006 Melbourne]]|[[Athletics at the 2006 Commonwealth Games – Men's decathlon|Decathlon]]}}
| show-medals    = 
}}
'''Dean Macey''' (born 12 December 1977) is an [[England|English]] athlete from [[Canvey Island]]. He is best known for competing in the [[decathlon]], which he did from 1995 to 2008, winning the [[Commonwealth Games]] decathlon, two [[IAAF World Championships in Athletics|World Championship]] medals, as well as twice finishing fourth in the [[Olympic Games]]. Retiring from decathlon due to injury, he competed in the [[bobsleigh]] between 2008 and 2010.

A popular media figure during and after his athletics career, he is a keen [[angling|angler]] and has presented an angling television series "On Coarse" for the [[Discovery Channel]],<ref>[http://www.radiotimes.com/programme/46cd/on-coarse-with-dean-macey/episodeguide/series-1 On Coarse] Retrieved 21 September 2015</ref> and "Fishing Allstars" on [[ITV4]]. He has also set a record time (0:56) on the [[Total Wipeout]] Qualifier.
After his athletics and bobsleigh careers being a keen Angler he went on to make a series of fishing videos on YouTube and was sponsored by Guru.

==Track and Field career==
Macey was born in [[Rochford]], [[Essex]].  He started out in [[Athletics (sport)|athletics]] as a high jumper, [[triple jump]]er and javelin thrower but graduated up through the [[octathlon]] to settle on the decathlon. He was also on the books of [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]] as a youngster but gave up [[football (soccer)|football]] to train for the World Junior Championships in 1995. Macey's major breakthrough was when he won [[silver medal]] at the [[1999 World Championships in Athletics]] in the [[Estadio Olímpico de Sevilla|Olympic Stadium]], [[Seville]], [[Spain]] with a personal best of 8556 points finishing behind [[gold medal]]list [[Tomáš Dvořák]] of the [[Czech Republic]]. Macey was the inaugural winner of [[BBC Sports Personality of the Year Young Personality]] in 1999.

The following year at the [[2000 Summer Olympics]], [[Sydney]], [[Australia]], after an [[injury]] ravaged year, Macey recorded another personal best score of 8567 points but could only finish fourth. The title was won by [[Estonia]]n, [[Erki Nool]] but only after an appeal when earlier in the day the referee overruled his field judges and ruled out Erki's [[discus throw]] of 43.66 metres. The appeal was successful and the Estonian took gold ahead of the Czech, [[Roman Šebrle]] and [[United States of America|American]] [[Chris Huffins]].

Macey was back amongst the medals at the [[2001 World Championships in Athletics|2001 World Championships]] in the [[Commonwealth Stadium (Edmonton)|Commonwealth Stadium]], [[Edmonton]], Alberta, Canada, improving on his personal best yet again, with 8603 points finishing with the [[bronze medal]], once again behind Tomáš Dvořák (gold medal), and Erki Nool (silver medal).

Injuries forced Macey to miss the [[2002 Commonwealth Games]], held at the [[City of Manchester Stadium]], [[Manchester]], [[England]] and all other major competitions until making his comeback at [[Hexham]], England, July 2004. He worked for [[BBC TV]] during the Commonwealth Games.<ref name=c4 />

His score in Hexham of 7842 points was, purposely, just enough to meet the B qualifying standard of 7700 for the upcoming [[Summer Olympic Games]].

At the [[Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's decathlon|2004 Summer Olympics]] in [[Athens]], [[Greece]] Dean performed well, in view of the recent years away from competition, but with a possible medal in his grasp, a below par [[pole vault]] and [[javelin throw]] once again left him in fourth place at an Olympic competition behind [[Roman Šebrle]] (gold), [[Bryan Clay]] (silver) and [[Dmitriy Karpov]] (bronze).

At the [[2006 Commonwealth Games]], despite still nursing some injuries, Macey led after the first day with a personal best of 15.83 metres in the last round of the [[shot put]]. Over the course of the second day, that gap was reduced and overhauled by the Australian [[Jason Dudley]] because of injury-hampered performances in the [[110 m hurdles]] and the [[Javelin throw|javelin]]. Going into the final event, the [[1500 metres]], Macey needed to score 38 points more than Dudley to claim gold. He completed the event in 4:34.22, which gave him the gold medal by 69 points. Dean finished with a total of 8,143 points, ahead of the [[Jamaica]]n Maurice Smith (silver) and Dudley (bronze).

In 2008 after a failure to reach the B Qualifying standard for the [[2008 Olympic Games]], at the Hexham International Combined Events Meeting, Macey admitted that he was considering his future. Young decathlete [[Daniel Awde]] was selected for the Olympics. On 15 July, he decided to retire from athletics.<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/athletics/7503791.stm BBC Sport: Decathlete Macey decides to quit]</ref> Macey wrote a regular Olympic column in the Southend Echo newspaper entitled "Deano's Diary" in which he shared his views on the Beijing Games.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.echo-news.co.uk/sport/3604709.Dean_s_Olympic_Diary__Keep_going_Kelly__you_ll_win_one_day/|title = Dean's Olympic Diary: Keep going Kelly, you'll win one day}}</ref>

In 2009, Dean Macey completed the Men's Health Survival of the Fittest 10&nbsp;km run in Edinburgh, Scotland, recording a time in excess of 1 hour 15 minutes.

Macey worked as part of the commentary team for [[Radio 5 Live]]'s coverage of the [[2010 Commonwealth Games]] and [[Al Jazeera Sports]]' coverage of the [[2010 Asian Games]], as well as [[Channel 4]]'s screening of the [[2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships]].<ref name=c4 />

==Personal bests==
Information from [[World Athletics]] profile unless otherwise noted.
{{updated|3 July 2025}}
{| class="wikitable" |
|-
! Event
! Performance
! Location
! Date
|-
| [[1500 metres]]
| align=right  | 3:55.00
| align=center | [[Watford]]
| align=right  | 11 July 2007
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Event
! Performance
! Location
! Date
! Points
|-bgcolor=#ccffcc
| '''[[Decathlon#Records|Decathlon]]'''
| {{n/a}}
| align=center | [[Sydney]]
| align=right  | 7 August 2001
| align=right  | 8,603 points
|-
| [[100 metres]]
| align=right  | 10.69 (-0.2&nbsp;m/s)
| align=center | [[Sevilla]]
| align=right  | 24 August 1999
| align=right  | 931 points
|-
| [[Long jump]]
| align=right  | {{T&Fcalc|7.77}} (-0.5&nbsp;m/s)
| align=center | [[Sydney]]
| align=right  | 27 September 2000
| align=right  | 1,068 points
|-
| [[Shot put]]
| align=right  | {{T&Fcalc|15.83}}
| align=center | [[Melbourne]]
| align=right  | 20 March 2006
| align=right  | 841 points
|-
| [[High jump]]
| align=right  | {{T&Fcalc|2.15}}
| align=center | [[Edmonton]]
| align=right  | 6 August 2001
| align=right  | 944 points
|-
| [[400 metres]]
| align=right  | 46.21
| align=center | [[Edmonton]]
| align=right  | 6 August 2001
| align=right  | 998 points
|-
| [[110 metres hurdles]]
| align=right  | 14.34 (+0.0&nbsp;m/s)
| align=center | [[Edmonton]]
| align=right  | 7 August 2001
| align=right  | 931 points
|-
| [[Discus throw]]
| align=right  | {{T&Fcalc|48.34}}
| align=center | [[Athens]]
| align=right  | 24 August 2004
| align=right  | 836 points
|-
| [[Pole vault]]
| align=right  | {{T&Fcalc|4.80}}
| align=center | [[Sydney]]
| align=right  | 28 September 2000
| align=right  | 849 points
|-
| [[Javelin throw]]
| align=right  | {{T&Fcalc|64.03}}
| align=center | [[Sevilla]]
| align=right  | 25 August 1999
| align=right  | 799 points
|-
| [[1500 metres]]
| align=right  | 4:23.45
| align=center | [[Sydney]]
| align=right  | 28 September 2000
| align=right  | 788 points
|-
| colspan=4 align=right       | '''Virtual Best Performance'''
| align=right bgcolor=#cffcff | 8,919 points
|}

==Bobsleigh career==
After his retirement from athletics, Macey accepted a challenge to attempt to qualify for the [[2010 Winter Olympics]] in the [[bobsleigh]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/winter_sports/7871928.stm|title=Macey eyes bobsleigh at Olympics|date=5 February 2009}}</ref> He trained with former sprinter [[Jason Gardener]]. The pair finished sixth in the two-man event at the 2008 British Bobsleigh Championships held in [[Cesana Pariol]], Italy.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bobteamgb.org/news/a/163/ |title=Bobsleigh News - British Bobsleigh Association |access-date=6 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090829112515/http://www.bobteamgb.org/news/a/163/ |archive-date=29 August 2009 |url-status=usurped }}</ref> Subsequently, he worked for [[Eurosport]] as a regular part of the commentary team for the channel's bobsleigh coverage.<ref name=c4 />

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{World Athletics||name=Dean Macey}}
* [http://www.hexham-meeting.org Hexham Combined Events Meeting 2004/2008] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517120301/http://hexham-meeting.org/ |date=17 May 2014 }}
* https://web.archive.org/web/20090627212551/http://www.mtc-uk.com/talent/dean-macey

{{Footer Commonwealth Champions Decathlon Men}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macey, Dean}}
[[Category:1977 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:British men decathletes]]
[[Category:English men decathletes]]
[[Category:Olympic athletes for Great Britain]]
[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games]]
[[Category:Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England]]
[[Category:People from Canvey Island]]
[[Category:World Athletics Championships medalists]]
[[Category:English male bobsledders]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from Rochford]]
[[Category:Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games]]
[[Category:Commonwealth Games gold medallists in athletics]]