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Robert de Castella is Australia's greatest ever marathon runner. He set the world record in 1981, became Australia's first Track and Field World Champion in 1983, won two Commonwealth Games marathons in 1982 and 1986 and dominated the event worldwide for most of the 1980’s.

Four times Olympian Robert de Castella (Deek) is Australia’s first World Champion in Athletics, winning the marathon in Helsinki in 1983. He is the only Australian runner to have placed in the top 10 finishers at three straight Olympics in the toughest event the marathons. He dominated the world marathon scene throughout the 80’s, set the world marathon record in 1981 and was voted the world’s best marathon runner for that decade. ‘Deek’ has earned a revered place in the history of Australian sport, at Olympics, World Championships, and twice winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in the famous Brisbane marathon in 1982 and the again in Edinburgh in 1986. An Australian cross-country champion at 22, Rob took up marathon running in 1979 and made his Olympic debut one year later at Moscow at age 23, finishing tenth, behind the reigning champion. Two years later, he claimed his first victory and the world record, at the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan. In 1982, Rob won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane and the following January he was voted 1983 Australian of the Year and honoured with an MBE. He went on to win two Rotterdam Marathons, the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki, the Boston Marathon in 1986 smashing the course record, and several other major city marathon and races. As Director of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) for five years in the early 1990s, Robert repositioned the AIS as a centre of excellence after the drugs in sport debacle of the late 80’s. He was also involved in establishing the elite sports system used leading into Australia’s most successful Olympics in Sydney in 2000.

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