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being at the forefront of the genre’s march into the major championships, after decades of resistance from administrators in the sport. Waitz made her international debut as an 18-year-old at the 1972 Munich Olympics, running in the 1,500m, the longest discipline available to her in those days. A bronze medal followed at the
G
“metric mile” in the 1974 European Championships but the Norwegian’s endurance cried out for a longer trip, and in 1975 she broke the 3,000m world record with an astounding 8:46:6, in front of her adoring compatriots in Oslo – a mark she improved by more than a second to 8:45:4 at the Bislett Games a year later.
A BITE OF THE BIG APPLE In 1978 she won the first of five world cross-country titles and was invited to make her marathon debut in New York, an event with which she would become synonymous. She not only won but took a full two minutes off the women’s world record. It was the first of nine marathon titles in the “Big Apple” for the blonde phenomenon, more than any other runner in history. In the 1979 race, her 2:27:33 was the first sub two-and-a-half hour marathon recorded by a woman. Her feats led to the acceptance that
women running the ultimate distance was as much their right as it was to their male counterparts.
46 n RUNNING FREE
Grete the GREAT
rete Waitz almost single- handedly pushed female distance running into the spotlight with a series of epic performances. Her epitaph is
A year after failing by a slender margin to topple Mary Slaney’s 5,000m world record with a 15:08:80 effort, it was time to concentrate on the road. Fittingly, it was Waitz who claimed the first global female marathon title when she surged to victory at the inaugural World Championships in Helsinki. She also won a silver medal at the Los Angeles Olympics the following year. Her first foray to the London Marathon in 1983 saw her win as the hottest of favourites in yet another world record of 2:25:29. Waitz made pundits wonder if the women’s world record may one day overtake the men’s – having lowered the standard by nine minutes in five years.
NEW KID ON THE BLOCK The mid-eighties saw a new Norwegian super talent emerge in the shape of Ingrid Kristiansen. Waitz was to achieve further triumphs in London and Stockholm, but an agonising retirement with a knee injury at three-quarter distance at the 1988 Seoul Olympics ended her elite career. However, the crown of queen of distance running had been seamlessly handed on. Waitz completed her last marathon in
1992, on the streets she knew so well in New York (where else?), and went on to immerse herself in both corporate and charity work, promoting healthy living.
END OF THE ROAD The great Norwegian lost her six-year battle with cancer in April. She is quite simply a national and international icon who did more than anyone to change the perception of what women could achieve in distance running.
The sad passing of Grete Waitz last month brought down the curtain on the life of one of the most remarkable running talents in women’s athletics history. Adrian Hill remembers this very special hero…
In both Norway and New York there
are annual races named after her. A statue stands outside her home country’s national athletics stadium. She has even featured on a set of stamps. Through all this “hoopla” Waitz maintained her modest introspection, coping with her severe illness in stoic fashion, much as she met the challenge of the marathon.
A LASTING LEGACY Her relentless gallop showed millions of women that with application and determination there was no barrier (and certainly not one of distance) to what they could achieve. Kristiansen and Paula Radcliffe have both professed their admiration for what Waitz did for the sport. Her legacy is the sheer competitiveness and depth of quality in women’s marathon running. Waitz passed away with every
conceivable honour apart from an Olympic gold medal. In 1980, a combination of political interference (Norway joined the boycott of the Moscow Games) and the shocking failure to recognise the marathon as a discipline for women denied her what surely would have been her prize. Los Angeles and Seoul saw her just slightly past her prime, while those she had inspired were overtaking her. An Olympic gong is often seen as a measure of greatness, but the tally of Waitz’s achievements adds up to so much more than that. “Grete the Great” not so much opened the door for the acceptance of women’s endurance running, she knocked it off its hinges; a running hero in every conceivable way.
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