Women’s running pioneer Grete Waitz dies

Tributes are pouring in from around the world, as runners mourn the loss of Norwegian Grete Waitz, a former 3000m world-record holder and New York Marathon champion.

Waitz won the gold medal at the inaugural world championship marathon in Helsinki in 1983 and the Olympic silver medal in Los Angeles in 1984. She was 57 and succumbed to a long battle with cancer.

“One of the brightest flames of the modern athletics era has been extinguished but the heroic deeds of Grete Waitz will live on eternally,” IAAF President Lamine Diack said. “The dedication, perseverance and fortitude with which Grete carved out her athletics career on the track, across the country and on the road is an example to us all, as is the positive way she tackled the illness that beset her life in recent years. On behalf of the international athletics family I wish to express our heartfelt sorrow at the passing of such a great champion, and offer our sincerest sympathies and condolences to her family and friends.”

Click here to read the New York Times obit.