Ingrid Kristiansen

Ingrid Kristiansen

Ingrid Kristiansen with family in 1987
Personal information
Born	21 March 1956 (1956-03-21) (age 60) Trondheim, Norway
Height	1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	50 kg (110 lb)
Sport
Sport	Long-distance runner
Club	BUL, Oslo
Medal record Representing  Norway World Championships 1987 Rome 10,000 m 1980 Sittard 3000 m World Cross Country Championships 1988 Auckland women's race 1985 Lisbon women's race 1987 Warsaw women's race World Road Race Championships 1987 Monte Carlo 15 km 1988 Adelaide 15 km European Championships 1986 Stuttgart 10,000 m 1982 Athens Marathon

Ingrid Kristiansen (née Christensen on 21 March 1956) is a Norwegian former athlete. She was one of the best female long distance runners during the 1980s. She is a former world record holder in the 5000 metres, 10,000 metres, the half-marathon and the marathon (she held those records simultaneously) and was a World Champion on the track, roads and cross-country. Kristiansen was the first athlete to win World titles on all three surfaces. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, she finished fourth in the first women's Olympic marathon. At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, she dropped out of the 10,000 metres final while leading. Early in her career, she was also an elite cross country skier, winning several Norwegian titles and a European junior championship.

Kristiansen started her career quite unremarkably, running 2:30 – 2:40 for her first few marathons. She won a medal in the 3000 metres at the 1980 World Championships in Athletics, taking the bronze. It was not until she gave birth to her first son, Gaute, that she began to improve. After winning the Houston Marathon and the London Marathon in 1984, she placed fourth in the first Olympic women's marathon in Los Angeles. She also set two track world records in the 5,000 m (14:58.9) and the 10,000 m (30:59.14) at the Bislett Games in Oslo.

In 1985 she won the London Marathon again in a new world record of 2:21:06, smashing Joan Benoit's world record of 2:22:43, set in the Boston Marathon in 1983. Later that year she lost to Joan Benoit in the Chicago Marathon, running 2:23:05 for second place.

1986 was Kristiansen's best year in track. After she won the Boston Marathon in hot conditions, she set a new world record in the 10,000 m (30:13.3), smashing her own world record from 1984. Then she broke the 5,000 m world record, running 14:37.89. After that she broke the half marathon world record in Sandnes, running 1:06:40, but the course was not certified and the record still remained with Joan Benoit. She won the Chicago Marathon, once again in hot and humid conditions, running 2:27:08. She ended the year winning the 10,000 m event at European Championships, running the 2nd fastest time ever (30:23.3) and nearly 40 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.