Lisa Martin

Lisa Frances Ondieki (née O'Dea, formerly Martin; born 12 May 1960) is an Australian former long-distance runner. In the marathon, she won the 1988 Olympic silver medal and two Commonwealth Games gold medals. Other marathon victories included the 1988 Osaka International Ladies Marathon and the 1992 New York City Marathon. She also won the Great North Run Half Marathon three times. Her best time for the marathon of 2:23:51, set in 1988, made her the fourth-fastest female marathon runner in history at the time.

Career Lisa O'Dea was born in Gawler, South Australia. She attended Gawler High School. She was originally a 400 m hurdler, and she competed in middle-distance events in the AIAW for the Oregon Ducks track and field team. Initially reluctant to take up the marathon, she won her first marathon competition, the Rocket City marathon in Huntsville USA in 1983, taking almost five minutes off the Australian record with her time of 2:32:22. In 1984, as Lisa Martin, she finished seventh in the inaugural women's Olympic marathon at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Her time of 2:29:03 was the first of her eleven sub 2:30 marathons. Three months later, she finished second in the Chicago Marathon, with a new personal best time of 2:27:40.

At the 1985 Pittsburgh Marathon, she competed alongside her husband at the time, American distance runner Ken Martin; they became the fastest married couple ever in a marathon winning the men's and women's races in 2:12:57 and 2:31:54 respectively. Later that year, she finished second behind Grete Waitz in the New York City Marathon. She won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in a personal best of 2:26:07, with New Zealand's Lorraine Moller in second. A month later, she won the first of her three Great North Run Half Marathon titles in a personal best of 69:45. She ended the 1986 season by again finishing second to Waitz in the New York Marathon. She finished second in the 1987 Osaka marathon, behind Moller, then failed to finish the 1987 World Championship marathon in Rome.

In 1988, she ran her fastest ever marathon, when winning in Osaka with a time of 2:23:51, which at the time made her the fourth-fastest woman marathon runner in history, behind Ingrid Kristiansen, Joan Benoit and Rosa Mota. Later that year, she won a silver medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics in 2:25:53, 13 seconds behind Mota. In January 1990, she retained her Commonwealth marathon title at the Auckland Games. In a solo performance, she finished over seven minutes ahead of silver medallist Australian team-mate Tani Ruckle. Her time of 2:25:28 remains a Games record (as of 2014). 1995 Tokyo International Women's Marathon Tokyo, Japan — DNF 1996 Osaka International Ladies Marathon Osaka, Japan 9th 2:30:27