Grete Waitz

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Grete Waitz athletics

Grete Waitz (NYC Marathon, 2010) 2.jpg
Grete Waitz, 2010

nation NorwayNorway Norway
birthday October 1, 1953
place of birth Oslo, Norway
date of death April 19, 2011
Place of death Oslo, Norway
Career
discipline Long distance running

Grete Waitz , b. as Grete Andersen (born October 1, 1953 in Oslo ; † April 19, 2011 ibid), was a Norwegian long-distance runner and world record holder.

Life

Grete Waitz began practicing various sports as a child, including handball and gymnastics . As a twelve year old she joined an Oslo sports club and jumped 1.61 m as a high jumper . Via the sprint, she came to the middle-distance run and started her first cross-country runs at the age of 15 . A year later she won the Norwegian junior championships in the 400 and 800 meters and at the age of 17 set a new European junior record in the 1,500 meter run (4: 17.0 min).

At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich , she was eliminated from the 1500 meters in the lead , as was the case at the 1971 European Championships in Helsinki . In 1974 she won bronze over the same distance at the European Championships in Rome . The following year she married Jack Waitz and set a world record over 3000 meters with 8: 46.6 minutes , which she improved to 8: 45.4 minutes in 1976.

In Montreal at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal , she reached the semi-finals over 1500 meters. In 1978 in Glasgow she became world champion in cross country . A bronze medal over 3000 meters at the European Championships in Prague followed in the summer . In the fall she started the New York City Marathon . She actually wanted to end her career with this race; however, with 2:32:30 h, she was more than two minutes below the marathon world record of Christa Vahlensieck and had now found her specialist distance . Over the next two years, it improved this mark to 2:27:33 h and 2:25:42 h on its launches in New York City; however, the New York course turned out to be 150 meters too short during a re-measurement in 1981.

Her winning streak also continued at the Cross Country World Championships : in 1979 in Limerick , 1980 in Paris and 1981 in Madrid , she won gold. The Olympic boycott of their country prevented participation in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow .

In 1982 a bronze medal at the World Cross Country Championships in Rome was followed by another victory in New York City, where she needed 2:27:14 h for the now correctly measured 42.195 km.

She won the 1983 World Cross Country Championships in Gateshead , the London Marathon in a world record time of 2:25:29 h, the World Championships marathon in Helsinki and for the fourth time in New York City. After a bronze medal at the World Cross Country Championships in East Rutherford in 1984 , she started at the premiere of the Olympic Women's Marathon at the Games in Los Angeles and won the silver medal behind Joan Benoit . This earned Waitz the Fearnleys olympiske ærespris in her home country .

In further starts on the royal distance she triumphed in 1985, 1986 and 1988 with three more victories in New York City, making it the record winner of this race to this day. In 1986 she won another victory in London. In 1988 she won the Stockholm Marathon , where she set the course record that is still valid today. At the marathon of the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul , she gave up because of an injury. At the end of her competitive sports career, she finished fourth in New York City in 1990. In 1992 she took part in the New York City Marathon with Fred Lebow , the cancer-stricken race director of this race, who started "his" run for the first time on his 60th birthday.

Further successes in road races include victories at the New York Mini 10K (1979-1982, 1984), the Falmouth Road Race (1980), the Zurich New Year's Eve Run (1981), the San Silvestre Vallecana (1981), the Göteborgsvarvet (1982) Greifenseelauf (1982, 1983, 1986), at the Great North Run (1984, 1988), at the Paderborn Easter Run (1986, with the world best time over 25 km at the time), at Bay to Breakers (1986) and at the Grand Prix of Bern (1988).

In Norway, Grete Waitz is considered a sports legend. She was national champion over 800 meters six times , eight times over 1500 meters, five times over 3000 meters and eleven times in cross-country running in the short and three times in the long distance. In 1972 she became Norwegian champion over 800 m in the hall. A statue of her stands in front of the Bislett Stadium in Oslo. In 1975, 1977, 1979, 1983 she was voted Norway's Sportswoman of the Year , and in 1977 she was honored with the Morgenbladet gold medal.

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of her first victory, the marathon medal of the New York City Marathon in 2008 was adorned with a portrait of the Norwegian.

In 2005 Grete Waitz announced in public that she was suffering from cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy . In 2011 she succumbed to the disease.

Personal bests

  • 400 m : 57.6 s, May 24, 1972, Oslo
  • 800 m : 2: 03.1 min, July 3, 1975, Oslo (former Norwegian record)
  • 1000 m : 2: 39.74 min, September 9, 1977, London (former Norwegian record)
  • 1500 m : 4: 00.55 min, September 3, 1978, Prague (Norwegian record)
  • 1 mile : 4: 26.90 min, July 9, 1978, Gateshead (Norwegian record)
  • 2000 m : 5: 47.1 min, January 8, 1978, Newcastle (Norwegian record)
  • 3000 m : 8: 31.75 min, July 17, 1979, Oslo (Norwegian record)
    • Hall: 8: 50.8 min, January 4, 1980, Daly City (former Norwegian record)
  • 5000 m : 15: 08.80 min, June 26, 1982, Oslo (former Norwegian record)
  • 10 km road run : 31:28 min, May 6, 1984, Oslo
  • 15 km road run: 47:52 min, February 11, 1984, Tampa (former Norwegian record)
  • Half marathon : 1:08:49 h, July 24, 1988, South Shields
  • 25 km road race: 1:22:28 h, March 29, 1986, Paderborn (Norwegian record)
  • Marathon : 2:24:54 h, April 20, 1986, London

Awards

2013: Induction into the IAAF Hall of Fame

Web links

Commons : Grete Waitz  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Waitz, Grete . In: Internationales Sportarchiv 32/2002 of July 29, 2002, supplemented by news from MA-Journal up to week 25/2005 (accessed via Munzinger Online ).
  2. ↑ Rachel Wallack: Interview with Grete Waitz ( Memento from November 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). New York Road Runners website . June 2, 2008
  3. ^ New York Road Runners: 50 Great Moments in NYRR History: Grete Waitz - NYC Marathon Legend . Video on YouTube , posted on January 12, 2009 (2:48 min)
  4. ^ Gbrathletics: Norwegian Championships
  5. ↑ gbrathletics: Norwegian Indoor Championships
  6. ^ IAAF: "Grete the Great" is honored in New York . September 27, 2005
  7. ↑ Harvey Araton: Sports of The Times; Waitz Summons Her Will to Win A Different Race . In: The New York Times . November 1, 2005
  8. ↑ 2005 ING NYC Marathon - Elite Runner Interviews: Grete Waitz toughs it out. In: MarathonGuide.com. Web Marketing Associates, archived from the original on April 19, 2011 ; Retrieved April 19, 2011 (English).
  9. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : CV: Grete Waitz in the competition with cancer . November 5, 2005
  10. ^ Spiegel Online : After cancer: Marathon legend Waitz died . April 19, 2011
  11. ↑ Leichtathletik.de: Running legend Grete Waitz is dead . April 19, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Waitz, Grete
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Andersen, Grete (maiden name); Waitz-Andersen, Grete
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian long-distance runner and first world marathon champion
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Oslo
DATE OF DEATH April 19, 2011
Place of death Oslo