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Grete Waitz
Sign in to saveNorwegian 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
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- 2024 ESC Guidelines for the management of chronic coronary syndromes
· 2024 · cited 2,639x
- The Timing of Normal Puberty and the Age Limits of Sexual Precocity: Variations around the World, Secular Trends, and Changes after Migration
· 2003 · cited 1,309x
- Associations between Nature Exposure and Health: A Review of the Evidence
· 2021 · cited 643x
- Martensitic phase transformations in nanocrystalline NiTi studied by TEM
· 2004 · cited 557x
- Potential of biobased materials for food packaging
· 1999 · cited 554x
via Crossref · 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
- Participant in
- 1983 World Championships in Athletics
- Sport
- athletics
- 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.