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Grete Waitz

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Grete Waitz

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Norwegian marathon runner and former world record holder (1953-2011)

OverviewAI-generated

Grete Waitz, born Grete Andersen on October 1, 1953, in Oslo, Norway, was a female athletics competitor and teacher. She competed in the marathon discipline and participated in the 1972, 1976, 1984, and 1988 Summer Olympics. Her athletic career spanned from 1971 to 1991. She achieved a personal best of 8694 and stood 172 cm tall, weighing 53 kg.

Waitz received several awards, including the Aftenposten Gold Medal, the Fearnley award, the Norwegian Sportsperson of the Year, and the Peer Gynt Literary Award. She authored works such as *On the Run*, *Run Your First Marathon*, and *Grete Waitz' guide to running*. She died of cancer in Oslo on April 19, 2011.

Synthesized by Vinony from 28 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Crossref, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1953
Works
9

Top works

  • On the Run
  • Run Your First Marathon
  • Grete Waitz' guide to running
  • Run your first marathon
  • Run your first marathon

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Key facts

Born
( 1953-10-01 ) 1 October 1953, Oslo , Norway
Died
19 April 2011 (2011-04-19) (aged 57), Oslo, Norway
Height
5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Weight
120 lb (54 kg)
Country
Norway
Sport
Sport of athletics
Event
Marathon

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Grete
Gender
female
Citizenship
Norway
Place of birth
Oslo
Place of death
Oslo
Occupation
teacher
Languages spoken
Norwegian
Country for sport
Norway
Mass
53
Image
Grete Waitz (NYC Marathon, 2010) 2.jpg
Height
172
Show 11 more facts
Commons category
Grete Waitz
date of birth
1953-10-01
date of death
2011-04-19
sports discipline competed in
marathon
cause of death
cancer
end of work period
1991-00-00
birth name
Grete Andersen
start of work period
1971-00-00
personal best
511.75
manner of death
natural causes
place of burial
Vår Frelsers gravlund
Sources (6)

via Wikidata · CC0

~10 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Grete Waitz, née Grete Andersen, (1 October 1953 – 19 April 2011) was a Norwegian marathon runner and former world record holder. In 1979, at the New York City Marathon, she became the first woman in history to run the marathon in under two and a half hours. Waitz won nine New York City Marathons, women's division, between 1978 and 1988, the highest number of victories in a single big city marathon in history. She won the silver medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and a gold medal at the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki. She was also a five-time winner of the World Cross Country Championships.

Waitz four times set a world record in the marathon, twice at the 3000 metres, and she set world records at distances of 8 kilometers, 10 kilometers, 15 kilometers and 10 miles. She won 12 World Marathon Majors, the most for any runner, earning her a place in the Guinness World Records. Her other marathon victories included winning the London Marathon in 1983 and 1986 and the Stockholm Marathon in 1988.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Grete Waitz” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.