World records at the New York City Marathon: When Beth Bonner and Grete Waitz ruled the streets of the Big Apple
With both the men’s and women’s world record falling in 2023, Olympics.com looks back at the four times it has fallen in the Big Apple - including a historic three-peat by an unstoppable Norwegian.
Athletics
The New York City Marathon, which takes place this year on Sunday 5 November, has a long and rich history that goes all the way back to the inaugural race in 1970.
In the 53 years since, the race has become one of the most famous in the world, making up one-sixth of the annual Marathon Majors.
In over a half-century of races, no man has ever broken the world record in New York. However, the case isn’t the same for female athletes who have set the fastest time in history on four occasions, including during three stunning years where one woman broke the world record each time she participated in the race.
Read on to discover the story of when world records fell at the New York City Marathon.
1971 - Beth Bonner becomes the first woman to break the marathon world record in New York
In just the second year of the New York City Marathon (the first being a men’s only event), the USA’s Beth Bonner became the first woman to ever finish the race - and she did so in historic fashion.
Passing the line in 2:55:22, Bonner set a new world record, becoming the first woman to run a sub-three-hour marathon.
Her time that year would not be beaten in New York until 1975 when Kim Merritt set a course record of 2:46:14.
It would take a further four years for the world record to again fall on the streets of New York. But when it did, three terrific years of historic racing began with one runner from Norway at the centre of it all.
1978 - Grete Waitz begins a three-year reign with world record number one
Nobody in history has ever won the New York City Marathon more times than Grete Waitz, with the Norwegian triumphing on the course nine times between 1978 and 1988.
The story began with her first race victory in 1978, with a run that would also go down in history as a new world record.
Up until Waitz stormed to victory that year, the fastest time ever recorded in the Marathon Major was a time of 2:39:11 set by American Miki Gorman in 1976.
Yet just two years later, Waitz began her historic reign in New York, passing the line in 2:32:30 to become the city’s second world record breaker.
Waitz had entered the race among the favourites, having won the 3000m race at the 1977 IAAF World Cup and the first of five World Cross Country Championships golds in Glasgow in 1978.
However, few would have foreseen the reign of dominance she had begun with that first race win in New York.
Things would only get better.
1979 - History repeats itself as Waitz makes it two world records from two
By the tail end of 1979, Waitz had solidified her place as the best female cross-country runner on the planet by winning her second consecutive title at that year’s Worlds.
However, a rare blip on her copybook came at the IAAF World Cup when she finished in the silver medal position in the 3000m - a race she had dominated just a year before.
Yet, if there were any doubters, they were soon to be silenced, as the rapid Norwegian once again triumphed in New York City.
Her time that day of 2:27:33 was almost five minutes faster than her previous world record there and proved she was without a doubt the most formidable force on the planet over the 42.195 km distance.
1980 - A historic three-peat signals last world record to be set at New York City Marathon
A new decade was upon us, but nothing had changed when it came to the winner of the New York City Marathon.
After two record-breaking runs in the previous two years, Waitz was back to her mesmerising best in the 1980 edition of the race.
Once again, nobody could last with Norway’s finest as she took close to two minutes off her world record, coming home in 2:25:42.
It was a third victory on the trot and, while she would set no more marathon world records in her career, this was far from being Waitz’s last race win on the streets of New York.
1981 saw a different athlete triumph for the first time since 1977, with New Zealand’s Allison Roe winning in a controversial race that took place on a course that had been measured short.
However, what followed in the following years was a show of absolute dominance the likes of which the world has never seen before or since.
Waitz won five New York City Marathons in a row from 1982 until 1986, before registering her final victory in 1988 - 10 years after her first world record.
The incredible career of the Norwegian athlete would include marathon gold at the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki, five World Cross Country Championships golds, a silver in the first-ever women’s Olympic marathon at Los Angeles 1984 and marathon victories in London (1983 and 1986) and Stockholm in 1988.
But even with all her many achievements, nothing would compare to her record in the marathon race she made her own in the heart of the USA.
Her nine wins in New York are the most by any athlete in a single marathon and she continues to be remembered as one of the greatest long-distance runners in history.