Grete Waitz, 57, the elegant, long-striding Norwegian, died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer. She was a remarkable athlete, and a strong case can be made for her being the best ever woman runner.

Originally a 400 metre specialist she moved up to the 1500 metres, and her personal best for that distance still stands as the Norwegian record 33 years later.

She went on to win the seven-mile Falmouth Road Race, won the 10K Peachtree three times, the L’eggs Mini-Marathon five times, and set world road records at 8K, 10K and 15K.

But it was the marathon that made her name.

She won the first one she entered, the New York City Marathon, taking a full two minutes off the record. She proved to be unbeatable in New York winning that famously tough race no less than nine times breaking the world record three years in a row.

In all, she lowered the women’s world record by an amazing nine minutes. She also won the London Marathon twice along with the ’83 Worlds in Helsinki.

She even went in for the IAAF World Cross Country, which some athletes say is a runner’s biggest test, and won it five times.

Unable to train properly because of a nagging back injury, she lost the ’84 Olympic Marathon to Joan Benoit.

Grete was instrumental in enforcing the idea that women athletes were perfectly capable of running the same long distances as men (Women couldn’t even run the 1,500 metres at the Olympics until 1972).

In his excellent book, Running with Legends, Michael Sandrock wrote of her: “Hollow-cheeked, running tall, her long, blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, she carried women’s running into the 20th century.”

Grete endorsed Adidas products and persuaded her sponsor to donate 5% of the proceeds to a cancer care foundation which she founded. The deal raised a fortune for the charity.

Greta Waitz. 1 October 1953 – 19 April 2011. A great lady and a great runner.

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