Bird-Smith also won the Olympic bronze medal at Rio 2016 in the same event that he took the Commonwealth Games title in - the men's 20-kilometre walk.

At Rio 2016, Bird-Smith finished behind the Chinese pair of Wang Zhen and Cai Zeilin for the Olympic bronze medal.

Two years later, he broke the Commonwealth Games record at Gold Coast 2018, winning a home gold for Australia in a time of 1hr 19min 34sec, joined on the podium by England's Tom Bosworth and Samuel Gathimba from Kenya.

"The Olympic dream I had as a kid took me on an amazing worldwide journey," said Bird-Smith. 

"I wanted to be the best and my competitive nature served me so well, session after session, year after year. 

"I worked harder and harder with no fear of failure and with dreams of medals.

"As 2022 rolled in with a multitude of challenges, I decided I would take a break from competition but continue to train for enjoyment until I had the chance to return. 

"Unfortunately, that competitive spirit has been a tough adversary as I found it incredibly hard to not work until exhaustion or to simply forgo a session with a number of other things going on in my life."

He was also the World Universiade champion over his preferred distance in 2015 in Gwangju.

Bird-Smith last competed internationally at the 2019 World Athletics Championships, where he finished 15th.

He was supposed to compete for Australia at his second Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020, but withdrew due to the birth of his daughter Astrid.