Roderick Genki Dean (; born 30 December 1991) is a Japanese athlete who competes in the

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown as far as possible. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's de ...

. He was born to a Japanese mother and a British father from

Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street () is a market town in County Durham, England. It is located around north of Durham and is close to Newcastle. The town holds markets on Saturdays. In 2021, the town had a population of 23,555. The town's history is ancient; ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He has a degree in sports science from

Waseda University Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...

Career

He started throwing the javelin at age 15 in high school and immediately displayed an aptitude for the discipline. He won a silver medal at the

2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to s ...

throwing a new personal best of 76.44 m. He first came to prominence at the

2012 Japan Championships in Athletics The were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka. Organised by JAAF, the three-day competition took place from June 8–10 and served as the national championships in track and field for the Japan. The competition was for the qualifying trial for the J ...

, throwing 84.03 m, setting a new championship record, beating veteran

Yukifumi Murakami is a Japanese javelin thrower. He was the first Japanese athlete to win a World Championship medal in the javelin, taking bronze at the 2009 edition with a throw of 82.97 metres. He was successful as a junior athlete and won the bronze medal i ...

and sealing his place in the Japanese team for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

in the

Javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown as far as possible. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's de ...

. He was selected as the Most Valuable Male Athlete of the Japanese Championships. At the 2012 Olympics he threw 82.07m to qualify from the heats, but could not improve on this and finished 10th in the final with 79.95m. In 2020 and 2021, he finished 2nd in the Japanese championships. Dean won Japan's National Javelin Championship and earned gold medals in June 2022 and 2023, with 81.02 m and 82.65 m throws. In 2023, he won the

Asian Championships An Asian Championship is a top level international sports competition between Asian athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. List of championships (Summer Olympic Sports) ;Aquatics and wate ...

, finished third in the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

and competed at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

, having also competed at the 2022 World Championships. He is currently ranked 8th in the world in his discipline.

Seasonal bests by year

*2009 - 70.57 *2010 - 78.57 *2011 - 79.20 *2012 - 84.28 *2013 - 80.15 *2014 - 77.32 *2015 - 75.09 *2016 - 79.59 *2017 - 75.30 *2018 - 76.33 *2019 - 78.00 *2020 - 84.05 *2021 - 82.15 *2022 - 82.34 *2023 - 83.15

References

External links

* *
Genki Dean – Paris 2024
at JAAF * *
Roderick Genki Dean
at the

Paris 2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dean, Genki 1991 births Living people Japanese male javelin throwers Olympic male javelin throwers Olympic athletes for Japan Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2024 Summer Olympics Japan Championships in Athletics winners Japanese people of English descent Asian Athletics Championships winners World Athletics Championships athletes for Japan Sportspeople from Kobe Athletes from Hyōgo Prefecture