Deanna's Story
Dual Olympian, Deanna Lockett won her first ever World Cup medal at the Budapest event in October 2017 with bronze in the 1500m. After ranking seventh in the 1500m and 19th in the 1000m in the 2017/18 World Cup rankings, the short tracker from Brisbane was among the 32 female skaters who qualified for the PyeongChang Olympic Games.
In her first event of the 2018 Winter Olympics, Lockett had a blistering start finishing 2nd in heat 3 of the 1500m race. In the semi-final Lockett made a strong start, sitting in a comfortable fourth position. With only a few laps to go, a jostling for positioning caused the Aussie Skater to trip and finish in 6th place.
On Day 11 of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the speed skater competed in her second event, the Ladies 1000m. An early lead showed Lockett proved to be a strong contender in the Ladies 1000m with an early lead in the heat. The dual Olympian's shot at a final came to an end in the heats when a penalty was issued for contact in a move with Kazakh athlete Anastassiya Krestova.
The 22-year-old was the Australian flag bearer for the Sapporo 2017 Asian Winter Games where she recorded three top-20 results before she competed at the World Short Track Championships in Rotterdam. She placed 12th overall in the 1500m in the Netherlands, 16th in the 1000m and 30th in the 500m; giving her an overall world ranking of 18th.
At only 18 years of age, the Queenslander was the youngest athlete on the 2014 Australian Olympic Winter Team. She was unlucky in the heat of her pet event, the 1500m, blocked out by her competitors and forced to finish in fifth position and miss out on progressing any further. She bounced back however, executing a great race to win her 1000m heat. In the quarter-final, Lockett was one of five skaters after a penalty saw an additional athlete added to the race. She powered from behind to overtake two skaters but just missed out on the top-two berth she needed to make the semi-final. The race was the fastest of the quarter-finals, and Lockett set a personal best time which saw her finish ninth overall.
