David Gillick represented Ireland in the men’s 400 metres at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

From Ballinteer, Dublin, and a member of Dundrum South Dublin AC, Gillick was one of the most gifted sprint athletes Ireland has produced. His mother Sheila played on the first Irish women’s basketball team in 1973 and sport was central to family life. He attended St Benildus College in Kilmacud and studied at Dublin Institute of Technology before relocating to Loughborough University to train under coach Nick Dakin.

In 2005 he won the European Indoor 400 metres title in Madrid – Ireland’s first sprint gold medal in 76 years – and defended it successfully in Birmingham in 2007 with an Irish indoor record of 45.52 seconds. He was a bronze medallist with the Irish 4×400 metres relay team at the 2004 World Indoor Championships.

Beijing was his first Olympics and he struggled from the outset – overwhelmed by the occasion and carrying anxiety that manifested physically – failing to reach the semi-finals. He recovered to produce the finest performance of his career at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, finishing 6th in the 400 metres final – the first Irish athlete ever to reach a global 400 metres final – and ran an Irish outdoor record of 44.77 seconds in Madrid that same summer.

Injury prevented him from competing at London 2012. He holds both the indoor and outdoor Irish 400 metres records. After retiring in 2013 he won Celebrity MasterChef, became an RTÉ broadcaster widely praised for his athlete interviews at major championships, and spoke publicly about his post-retirement mental health struggles in his bestselling book Back On Track.