Grete Waitz

Grete Waitz (1 October 1953 – 19 April 2011) was a Norwegian marathon runner and former world record holder. Waitz won nine New York City Marathons between 1978 and 1988, more than any other runner in history. She won a silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. She won a gold medal at the 1983 World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki.

Grete Waitz
Grete Waitz in 2010
Born	(1953-10-01)1 October 1953 Oslo, Norway
Died	19 April 2011(2011-04-19) (aged 57) Oslo, Norway
Cause of death	Cancer
Nationality	Norwegian
Grete Waitz Personal information Height 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) Weight 120 pounds (54 kg) Sport Country Norway Sport Track and field athletics Event(s) Marathon

Waitz also won the London Marathon in 1983 and 1986. The win in 1986 was her personal best time of 2:24:54. She won the Stockholm Marathon in 1988 at 2:28:24. (As of 2011 this is the Stockholm course record for women).

In 2000, Waitz was inducted into the United States National Distance Running Hall of Fame. She died from cancer in 2011.

Audio interview

• TheFinalSprint.com's interview with running pioneer Grete Waitz Archived 2008-11-03 at the Wayback Machine

Other websites

• Biography of Grete Waitz
• Grete Waitz talking about her (and Fred Lebow's), last NYC Marathon Archived 2010-10-21 at the Wayback Machine