Grete Waitz

A track 1,500m runner and schoolteacher, Waitz was invited to New York in 1978 essentially as a pacemaker for the women's field. She had never raced the distance, won in a world best, and went on to win the race nine times. Add the first women's world championship marathon title in 1983 and Olympic silver in 1984, and hers is the clearest case of a track runner rewriting the road.