Kristiansen unspins
a web of mystery
Duncan Mackay for the IAAF
April
16, London - Ingrid Kristiansen has set up a website which reveals the secrets of how she
became the greatest female distance runner in history.
During a career which remains unparalleled, the Norwegian is the only runner to have set world records at 5000 metres, 10,000m, the half-marathon and marathon, lift world titles on the track, cross country and road and win so many big city marathons.
Yet for many years at the start of her career Kristiansen never even believed she was the best runner in her own country, let alone the world. She admits that whenever she lined up against her compatriot Grete Waitz she expected to finish second. "I used to know I was going to get beaten," she says.
Then one day in 1984 she met Willi Railo, a sports psychologist from Oslo, who told her he couldn't understand what was wrong with her. "He said to me, 'You are the best in the world yet you have already settled for second place against Waitz. You have to learn to how be a winner'," recalls Kristiansen.
She took those words to heart, embarking upon a spell which meant the tables were well and truly turned as she was hardly beaten by Waitz again - or by anyone else for that matter.
Kristiansen is now sharing the techniques she learned from Railo, who is currently working with the England football team after a successful spell with the Italian Serie A club Lazio, along with her own philosophies on training and preparing for big races on her websitewww.ingrid-kristiansen.com.
Kristiansen describes her site as an "Scandinavian Holistic E-fitness concept, which includes your mind, spirit and body. To achieve something in life one needs the framework and guide of planning and goal setting. It is not enough to wish for something in life and then expect that things will happen just by themselves. This site shows you how."
She adds: "The main philosophy behind the web project is to share my experiences in both my life and in sport. With modern technology I can now do this electronically on a global scale. My hope is that this will help other athletes and the average jogger.
"The most fundamental values all of us should be aware of is our health, it should not be taken as granted. One of the main messages is also to have a broad perspective of life in general. There are too many with a very narrow perspective.
"Having lived behind the stage in elite sport I have also seen a lot of tragic personalities suffering many types of problems, such as eating disorders and obsessive compulsive disorders."
Kristiansen is promoting her latest venture during her visit to London this week, where she will be helping the organisers of the marathon celebrate the 21st anniversary of a race she put firmly on the map when, in 1985, she set a world best of 2hours 21min 06sec. That was one of four victories Kristiansen achieved in the world's biggest marathon, making her the most successful athlete in the race's history.
It is the passage of time which has shown us what a truly great runner Kristiansen was. In the 16 years since that performance only Kenya's Tegla Loroupe has run faster and it remains the quickest time ever by a woman in London. The world 10,000m record of 30min 13.74sec she set in 1986 has been beaten only by Ma Junren's Chinese runners.
Now 44, and the mother of three children, Kristiansen remains actively involved in the sport as a member of the International Amateur AthleticFederation's road running and cross country committee, as well ascontinuing to run for recreational purposes. Back in Norway, she helps promote health and fitness, but has grown increasingly alarmed at how little physical activity children in western Europe participate in today.
"Our kids do not get the basic fitness any longer," she says. "We drive them to all types of activities or they use public transport. Many of the younger kids do not even know that it is possible to use their own legs.
"At the same time they are bombarded and brainwashed by intensive multimedia marketing wherever they go. Most of the influence is based on buying stupid things nobody really needs and the role models presented are normally based on totally wrong values."
