Marley Raikiwasa

Marley Raikiwasa is Australia’s best women’s shot putter in nearly four decades, and after a brilliant junior career where she competed at two World U20 Championships winning a medal in the discus, her transition to seniors has been extremely challenging due to injury. Despite missing an entire year of training and competition, just two months into her return to competition, Marley moved to #4 Australian all-time in the shot put with a distance that was the longest by an Australian for 38 years. In June 2026 she was named in the Australian team for the 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games where she becomes the first Aussie for 12-years to compete in the shot put at the Games.

In her profile she takes time to thank and recognize many people who have supported and encouraged her, and contribution to her growth and development.

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16-years after Marley Raikiwasa started in sport age 4 and is proudly still with the same club – Tea Tree Gully.

Marley was a very sporty as a young kid.

“I have always loved sport, surf lifesaving, netball, football, karate, and athletics. I had to choose a couple a few years ago. I was offered a rookie contract for netball and a spot with Norwood football training squad, but I chose athletics and want to continue to work hard at achieving future goals with the sport I have chosen. (2022).

At 14 years, she was in the Nationals rankings, after throwing the discus 41 metres. Extraordinarily by age 15, she was already over 50 metres in the discus.

Ahead of the World U20 Championships qualification season (2021/22), Marley made some changes.

“At the start of last season, I got a new coach and joined a new throws squad. It was going to be a rebuilding year for me, adjusting my throwing technique. But I was able to make some improvements and was pleased with the unexpected progress.”

Marley’s performances over the summer season in the discus, while only aged 16, were spectacular. She was consistently over 50 metres in the new year, raising her PB from 50.79m to 52.59m.

At the trials and Australian U20 Championships she placed second and was later named in the Australian team for the 2022 World U20 Championships in Cali. At the World U20s she would qualify for the discus final, placing 9th.

“I was one of the youngest in the field.”

During 2022 she was also being pursued by a few colleges in the USA to continue her sporting career and education. She also wisely reaching out to multiple division one schools with the hope that one would hopefully recruit her. “In January and February of 2023, before my final year of high school started, I went on four official visits. LSU, Clemson, and Alabama were all top notch; they all had amazing facilities, coaching staff, and throwers. But ultimately, none of them felt like home quite like Auburn did. The team was (and still is) so supportive and is my family away from home, my coach at the time, coach Pat Ebel, welcomed me with open arms and helped me excel during my first year.”

She committed to Auburn University in June of 2023 and started competing for the Tigers in January 2024 indoors. In her freshmen year Marley improved her shot out from 14.27m to 16.84 and discus from 54.47m to 57.42. She raised the Australian U20 shot put record on three occasions. Selected for her second World U20 Championships, in Lima in 2024 she won a bronze medal in the discus and was 7th in the shot put.

In her second year at college, competing indoors in early 2025 she recorded six meets at distances from 15.70m to 16.81m. But sadly, March 1 would be her last competition for 13 months as she had a horrid time with injury. Marley explains:

“The rest of the season I struggled with a foot injury that could not be diagnosed. Unfortunately, at the end of my indoor season I found out I sustained a grade 2 stress fracture in my navicular bone. I was put in a moon boot for six weeks and had to medically redshirt (sit out) my entire outdoor season. After going through intense rehab for six weeks, I came out of the boot and had a final scan to clear me and it turned out the fracture had gotten worse. In order to save my foot from concaving I had to get surgery to have two screws placed into my right foot and a bone spur in my ankle sucked out. So, instead of flying back to Australia that summer I stayed in Auburn and on the 24th of June I had surgery. Two weeks later I’m was put into a moon boot (again). For six more weeks I could not weight bare, but I could start working out again. After those six weeks are over I am able to weight bare and move without my crutches. I spend intense rehab on my foot and finally get my boot off in September and a month later I am allowed to start lightly throwing. I redshirt the 2026 indoor season to ensure my foot is healthy enough to compete.”

After 13 months out of competition, she starts competing under new Auburn coach Joe Riccio, in late March 2026. In May she sets a discus PB and gets a breakthrough in the shot put hitting a distance of 17.57m. The 73cm PB mark, moved her from #7 to #4 Australian all-time and was the longest throw by an Aussie for 38-years. In June she was named on the Commonwealth Games team, becoming the first Australian representative in that event for 12-years.

Enjoyment of competing: An opportunity to put into practice what I have been taught and been working on, it is how I can reward the team that has got me to the point of competing…Biggest challenge you’ve faced: Adjusting to a new throwing technique, I still have a long way to go with this and a lot of improvement still to make. The mental challenge for me is always hard, I am my harshest critic and put high expectations on myself…Hero: In the sporting world Serena Williams is an icon for feminism, body image and the ultimate role model. Dani Stevens for her dominant almost 20-year international career, I was lucky enough to meet and train with her and she was friendly and humble at training and so cool, calm and collected during competition and Lyvante Su’emai for always looking after me when we have been away competing together and to give me someone to strive to be and throw like, a great thrower and a strong islander woman… Most influential person in your career: Family – Dad, mum, my aunties, and Grandma. My Australian coach Steve Larson has been a huge difference in my throwing journey. I have a long way to go and adjustments to improve my technique, but Steve continuously helps me with improving and putting things in perspective…Advice to your young self: “Fit” comes in all shapes and sizes…Hobbies: Going to live sport, I love watching my sisters play their sports footy, rugby, soccer and athletics and spending any spare time I have with family and friends…Sporting ambition: To keep having fun, improving on my throwing, to push for opportunities to represent my country at the highest level, and represent myself in the best possible way always remembering how and who has helped to get where I am… Education: studying  Physical Education at Auburn University…Giving back to sport: I umpired netball two times a week to help contribute to my sporting journey…Early coach and club support: My first coach Dianne Ferguson taught me all the basics of throwing and supported me to push and progress my throwing further. We are a small seniors club, but have the most supportive club manager’s and president who are always looking after me…Other Sports: netball, football and karate…Interesting Facts: part Fijian and has a black belt…Sporting family: parents played high level sport, mum and aunty played state league netball, dad played state rugby, her aunty was State boxing champ and uncles played SA State AFL.

@26 June 2026 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au