He can be just as proud of the public stance he took against the scourge of doping in sport, mostly in his case the systemic cheating by Russian athletes which robbed him of still more major titles.

It's somehow fitting that the crowning moment of Tallent's career, winning the 50km title at the 2012 Olympics, needed almost four years to reach its denouement.

Tallent had crossed the line in London in second spot behind Sergey Kirdyapkin, only to later discover that the Russian had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs both before and after the Games.

It took until mid-2016 for the Australian to finally have the gold medal draped around his neck at a ceremony in Melbourne.

"I've definitely made peace with that," said Tallent, 36, who retired on Friday after a hamstring injury ruled him out of Saturday's national championship race, ending his last chance of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics.

"Not getting the gold medal on the day was obviously a big disappointment at the time but I don't think about it too much now.

"I know I'm the Olympic champion.

"Speaking out was a big thing for me because I just wanted the sport to be in a better place going forward, so people didn't have to go through what I went through.

"With the whole Russian saga, I was probably caught in the middle of the worst period of it and it really affected my career."

Even so, what a career it was.

On his Olympic debut in 2008, Tallent became the first Australian man since Stan Rowley in 1900 to win multiple athletics medals at the one Games with silver in the 50km and bronze in the 20km.

"Being Olympic champion in London was definitely the highlight for me," Tallent told AAP.

"But I'm also just really proud of the consistency I had, being able to win medals at championships year in and year out.

"Winning the two medals in Beijing, backing up to win medals in the 20K and 50K within a week, that was also a pretty huge moment in my first Olympics."

There was also another Olympic silver in the 50km at the 2016 Rio Games and three successive silver medals at the world championships in 2011, 2013 and 2015.

And the 2011 silver should really have been a gold too, as he was beaten home by two Russians who later returned positive tests, but only one of them was disqualified.

Despite battling a series of injuries in recent years, Tallent had held out hope of bowing out on his own terms after a fourth Olympics campaign.

"I still wanted to win a medal in Tokyo," he said.

"The last few years have been a real struggle; I've had a lot of setbacks with injury and a few things going on in my personal life.

"I also had some good periods where I thought everything was going in the right direction and I'd be able to get back to where I was.

"It just wasn't to be but I'm just really proud of what I was able to achieve."

TALLENT'S MANY MEDALS

Olympics

Gold in 50km in 2012

Silver in 50km in 2008 and 2016

Bronze in 20km in 2008

World Championships

Silver in 50km in 2011, 2013 and 2015

Commonwealth Games

Gold in 20km in 2010

Bronze in 20km in 2006

Race Walking World Cup

Gold in 50km in 2012 and 2016

Silver in 50km in 2014

Bronze in 50km in 2010

Australian Associated Press