Dick Hooper won the inaugural Dublin City Marathon in October 1979 in 2:16:14 and went on to compete in the Olympic marathon at three consecutive Games – Moscow 1980, Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988 – winning six national marathon championships in total, the last in 1998 at the age of 42.

Along with his brother Pat, he made history at the 1980 Moscow Games as part of the first pair of brothers to compete in the same Olympic marathon.

A self-coached athlete from Raheny, Dublin, he set his personal best of 2:12:19 at the 1988 Irish National Championship in Wexford, finishing second behind John Woods, and won the Dublin Marathon three times in total (1979, 1985 and 1988).

At Seoul in 1988 he finished 24th in 2:17:16, the best performance by any Irish marathon runner in those Games, ahead of Woods in 52nd and with Treacy not finishing.

He later worked as an athletics coach and as an athletics commentator. He also competed four times at the European Championships.