Robert de Castella is the only Australian runner to have placed in the top 10 marathon finishers at three straight Olympics. He dominated the world marathon scene throughout the 80’s and was voted the world’s best marathon runner for that decade.
Although he never won an Olympic medal, he finished in the top ten on three of his four attempts. Deek has earned a revered place in the history of Australian sport, running fifth at the LA Games, winning the world Championship in 1983, setting a world’s best time and winning two Commonwealth Games gold medals in 1982 and 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 Australian of the Year and honoured with an MBE. He went on to win two Rotterdam Marathons and the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki and several other major city marathon and races.
Rob went into the 1984 LA Olympics as clear favourite, but managed only fifth place in the tough conditions. Two years later, he retained his Commonwealth Games title in Edinburgh and won the Boston Marathon in record time. In 1988 he travel to Seoul for the Olympics and placed eighth. Four years later at Barcelona, he ran 26th. Rob retired from the sport after the 1993 London Marathon.
Rob was the Director of the Australian Institute of Sport for five years in the early 1990s and heavily involved in establishing the elite sports system being used today by our Olympic athletes and teams.
After retiring from competitive sport after his fourth Olympics in 1992, Robert worked for 5 years as Director of the Australian Institute of Sport and more recently as Managing Director of his own company specialising in children’s health, SmartStart (Australia).
SmartStart is committed to making the health and fitness of students just as important as their literacy and numeracy and has developed the largest longitudinal database of children’s health and fitness statistics in Australia, to enable the production of reports and a range of services for students, parents, schools and government.
In 1998 Rob launched SmartStart (Australia), a company targeting children’s obesity, overweight and inactivity. Based in Canberra and working through the schools, thousands of children are now involved in his program. He is also involved in many other health programs and activities with charities, government and business.
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