Grete Waitz

1953-

Norwegian marathon runner

Distance runner Grete Waitz has set world records in the 3,000 meter, 8 kilometer, 10 kilometer, 15 kilometer, 10 mile, and the marathon. She was the first woman to run a marathon in under 2 hours and 30 minutes, and the first female world champion in the marathon. She has won the New York City Marathon nine times.

A Norwegian Tradition

Born Grete Andersen in Oslo, Norway in 1953, Waitz grew up with the Norwegian tradition of exercise and outdoor activity. Norwegians customarily hike during the summer and cross-country ski in the winter, as well as engaging in other sports; she told Michael Sandrock in Running with the Legends that Norway is "a sports heaven."

Waitz loved to run, and her two older brothers, Jan and Arild, encouraged her and included her in their games with other boys. Waitz's mother thought their games were too rough for her and bought her a piano, but she preferred running to playing it. When she went on errands to the grocery store, she timed herself to see how fast she could get there and back, and on the way she raced cars and buses. When she played cops and robbers with other children, none of them could catch her.

By the time she was 12, she had participated in handball, gymnastics, and track, but she loved running most of all. She joined the Vidar Sports Club in Oslo, at the encouragement of her neighbor, Terje Pedersen, who was a world record holder. At the club, she participated in the high jump, long jump, and shot put, winning her first prize, a silver spoon, in a ball-throwing contest. Although she did not do well in short races of 60 or 80 meters, she did better at distances of 300 meters or longer, and began training for the 400 and 800 meters. She also began making longer runs of 6 miles, keeping up with the boys.

Waitz often got up before dawn to run, a practice she continued throughout her running life. In 1969, when she was 16, she won the Norwegian junior championships

in the 400 and 800 meters. In 1971, she won the Norwegian open 800 and 1,500 meters, and set a European junior record of 4:17.0 in the 1,500. Although Waitz also ran at the Helsinki European Championships in 1971, she did not qualify for the 1,500. According to Sandrock, she later said, "I was disappointed, perplexed, angry, and only 17 years old.… My bitterness fed my desire to excel. Just as with my parents, this denial of support strengthened my determination."

In 1972, when Waitz was 18, she experienced a tragedy—her boyfriend and coach became ill and died. Waitz stopped eating and running, but her teammates from the track club helped her through the difficult time and encouraged her to use her running and training to help heal her grief.

Competes in 1972 Olympics

In First Marathons, Waitz commented, "My two older brothers set a wonderful example for me and since we were always in friendly sibling competition with one another and I tended to follow their training habits, other girls found me tough to bear. That's probably one of the reasons I made the 1972 Olympic team at 18 years old."

Waitz competed in the 1,500 meters in the 1972 Munich Olympics. Although she did not expect to win a medal, she enjoyed the experience and had fun with her friends on the team. She ran a personal best of 4:16 in the 1,500 meters, but the competition was so talented that she did not make it into the final competition. However, she realized that she could eventually become a great runner if she continued to train.

In that same year, Waitz began studying at a teacher's college in Oslo, fitting her training into the early hours before school. In 1974, she won a bronze medal in the 1,500 meters at the European Championships, and was named Norwegian Athlete of the Year.

As Waitz matured, she began running longer distances, and in 1975, set a world record in the 3,000 meters. It was only the second time she had raced that distance. In that same year, she was ranked No. 1 in the world in the 1,500 meters and 3,000 meters.

Competes in 1976 Olympics

In 1976, Waitz returned to the Olympics, but this time she knew what to expect and trained more seriously. In fact, she had not missed a day of training for more than two years, and she was expected to win a medal. However, there was no women's 3,000-meter race, and she had to enter the 1,500 meters, the farthest distance women were allowed to run in the Olympics at the time. Although she made it to the semifinals, she placed eighth—not good enough to make it to the finals, even though she had set a personal best and Scandinavian record in the 1,500.

Waitz was attacked in the Norwegian press, and she became angry: she had trained twice a day for two years, despite having a full-time job as a teacher and spending two hours each day commuting to her work. According to Sandrock, she said, "I became a victim of the Norwegian expression, 'A silver medal is a defeat'—if you don't win, you lose." In 1977, Waitz decided in the future to run without the support of the Norwegian Federation scholarship.

Waitz won world cross-country titles in 1978, 1979, 1981, and 1983. During this time, she worked as a schoolteacher, training during her time off. In the winter, she switched to cross-country skiing, which kept her in shape while giving her legs a break from running. At one point, according to Sandrock, she was running during the winter but could find only a quarter-mile of plowed road to run on. Resolutely, she ran back and forth on it for eight miles.

Wins New York City Marathon

In 1978, Waitz was considering retiring, but her husband convinced her to try running a marathon. Waitz was reluctant at first, but eventually called the New York City Road Runners Club to get an invitation to run the event. She was turned down. Although she was a champion, she had never run the 26.2-mile distance. Waitz was disappointed, mainly because she and her husband, Jack Waitz, were hoping to have a vacation in New York but could not afford to go unless they were sponsored by the club.

However, soon after this, Fred Lebow, president of the club, called with an offer. He suggested that she run as a "rabbit," setting a fast pace for the elite women, She would not be expected to run fast for the entire distance, but only for a portion of the course.

Up to that point, the farthest Waitz had ever run was 12 miles, less than half the marathon distance. She had no idea what to expect, so when the race began, she went out fast. By the 19th mile, she began to tire, and she had lost track of how much farther she had to run because she was used to reading distances in kilometers, not miles. Nevertheless, she continued to run. Like everyone who runs the New York City marathon, she looked desperately for any sign that she was close to Central Park, where the finish line was. Each patch of trees in the distance gave her hope, then despair when it turned out not to be the park.

Finally, she reached the finish line. She had registered so late that her bib number was not listed in the official guide to the runners, and no one knew who she was. When Fred Lebow asked who had won, all anyone could tell him was "Some blond girl," according to Peter Gambaccini in Runner's World. Mobbed by reporters, she had no idea that she had won. In addition, she had set a new women's world record for the distance with a time of 2:32.30, two minutes faster than the old record.

Back home in Norway, Waitz returned to her teaching job, but her students had trouble comprehending how far she had run because they were not used to distances expressed in miles. When she told them it was 42 kilometers, they still did not understand. Finally, according

to Sandrock, she told them it was the distance between Oslo and a town that was 26 miles away. They were shocked.

In 1979, now a running star, Waitz quit teaching in order to run full-time. She knew that, if she could set a world record in the marathon despite being totally unprepared for the distance, she could do even better if she trained for it. She went on to win the New York City marathon eight more times; she won 13 of 19 marathons that she entered between 1978 and 1988. In 1979, 1980, and 1983 she set new world records in the event. She won the World Marathon Championships in 1983, beating the second-place runner by three minutes. In that same year, Waitz founded the 5-km Grete Waitz Run in Oslo, Norway; 3,000 runners participated.

Wins Silver in Los Angeles Olympics

In 1984, Waitz went to the Los Angeles Olympics. That year was the first that women were allowed to compete in the marathon. Previously many observers believed the event was too grueling for women to complete, but in the preceding 15 years women, including Waitz, had proved this prejudice wrong by performing strongly in non-Olympic marathons. Waitz was expected to win, but came in second to Joan Benoit Samuelson, winning a silver medal. Waitz did not make excuses for coming in second, but praised Benoit for her excellent race. She was relieved to have finally won an Olympic medal: now the pressure for her to win one for Norway was gone.

Waitz ran in the 1988 Olympic Marathon in Seoul, Korea but did not finish the race, hampered by knee surgery she had undergone before the race. Later that year, however, she made a comeback, winning the New York City Marathon for the ninth time. "Everything feels good," she said before the race, according to Marc Bloom in Runner's World. American runner Joan Benoit Samuelson, who came in third, told Bloom, "Losing to Grete is an honor. She owns New York." In 1990, Waitz retired from competition to devote her time to serving as a spokesperson for women's sports.

Since retiring from competition, Waitz has used her ability to help others who have difficulty in running. In 1992, Waitz ran the New York City Marathon with Fred Lebow, who was suffering from brain cancer. Because of his illness, he could only run very slowly, and the two took 5 hours, 32 minutes and 34 seconds to complete the course; when they finished, Waitz cried, knowing that Lebow's condition was terminal and it was the last time she would run with him. In 1993, Waitz waited at the finish line for runner Zoe Koplowitz, who had multiple sclerosis, to finish the course. Koplowitz took 24 hours to complete the marathon distance. Waitz wrote in First Marathons, "No one had a medal for her, so I rushed back to my hotel to get my husband's medal for her." In 1991, Waitz was named Female Runner of the Quarter Century by Runner's World magazine.

In First Marathons, Waitz wrote, "I prefer to train in the dark, cold winter months when it takes a stern attitude to get out of bed before dawn and head out the door to below-freezing weather conditions. Anyone can run on a nice, warm, brisk day."

Legacy of a Trailblazer

Michael Sandrock wrote in Running With the Legends, "Waitz has no rival in terms of depth and breadth of career. Her place as the pioneer of women's marathoning is secure, and it is not farfetched to say that women's marathoning entered the modern era when Waitz entered New York in 1978." Sandrock pointed out that when Waitz began running, there are no women's 3,000-meter, 10,000-meter, or marathon races in the Olympics, no women-only races, no prize money for women, and very little regard from the running press for women runners. For example, when Waitz entered an Oslo 3,000-meter event, one journalist wrote "Oh, save us from these women running seven laps around the track," according to Sandrock.

By the time she ran her tenth New York City Marathon in 1990, the status of women's running was nearly equal to that of men's. Waitz, like other champions of her time, was a trailblazer throughout this change.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Address: 3448 NW 104th Way, Gainesville, FL 32606.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

"Grete Waitz," Great Women in Sports, Visible Ink Press, 1996.

"Grete Waitz: Queen of the Marathon," in Running with the Legends, edited by Michael Sandrock, Human Kinetics, 1996.

Waitz, Greta, "Cool Controlled Grace," in First Marathons, edited by Gail Waesche Kislevitz, Breakaway Books, 1999.

Periodicals

Bloom, Marc, "Grete Waitz," Runner's World, (December, 1991): 52.

Bloom, Marc, "Revival of the Fittest," Runner's World, (January, 1989): 30.

Gambaccini, Peter, "The Queen," Runner's World, (November, 1994): 64.

Other

"Grete Waitz," Distance Running Hall of Fame, http://www.distancerunning.com/ (January 27, 2003).

Sketch by Kelly Winters