Gerda Steyn (born 3 March 1990) is a South African marathon and ultramarathon athlete. She set the down-run record for the 90 km Comrades Marathon in 2023 with a mark of 5:44:54, becoming the fourth woman under 6 hours for that race. She also holds the record for the 56 km Two Oceans Marathon and has won that event 7 consecutive times, starting in 2018.
On 11 April 2021, she became the SA marathon record holder with a time of 2:25:28 at the Xiamen Tuscany Camp Elite Marathon in Siena, Italy. She then broke her own record at the 2023 Valencia marathon, setting a time of 2:24:03. Steyn is a two-time Olympian, competing for South Africa in both the 2020 and 2024 Summer Games.
Early life Her parents are Pieter and Trudie Steyn. Gerda grew up on a farm in the Bothaville area and completed her schooling in 2008 at the Bothaville High School. Afterwards, she qualified as a quantity surveyor from the University of the Free State. She has a sister and a brother.
Career In 2014 she went to work in Dubai and joined a running club, where she discovered her talent for running. After completing her first Comrades in 2015, she met 1991 winner Nick Bester who became her coach.
Her first major career victory was in the 2018 Two Oceans Marathon, in a time of 3:39:32.
She won the 2019 Comrades Marathon in a record time of 5 hours, 58 minutes, and 53 seconds, becoming the first woman to complete the uprun in under six hours.
She also won the 2019 Two Oceans Marathon in a time of 3:31:28. She won it for the fifth time in a row in 2024 and broke her course record with a time of 3:26:54.
She competed in the women's marathon at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Her best time for a standard marathon is the SA record of 2:25:28, achieved in 2021 at the 2021 IAAF Xiamen Tuscany Camp Elite Marathon in Siena, Italy, breaking the previous 25-year-old SA record by more than a minute.
At the 2023 Valencia Marathon, Steyn finished in 11th running a time of 2:24:03 becoming the South African national record holder for the event.
Results YearRacePlacePositionTime2015Comrades MarathonDurban56th8:19:082016Two Oceans MarathonCape Town14th4:15:44Comrades MarathonPietermaritzburg14th7:08:232017Comrades MarathonDurban4th6:45:452018Two Oceans MarathonCape Town1st3:39:32Comrades MarathonPietermaritzburg2nd6:15:34New York MarathonNew York13th2:31:042019Two Oceans MarathonCape Town1st3:31:28Comrades MarathonDurban1st5:58:53New York MarathonNew York11th2:27:482020London MarathonLondon7th2:26:512021Nelson Mandela Bay Half MarathonPort Elizabeth2nd1:12:14Giulietta e Romeo Half MarathonVerona4th1:13:28Olympic GamesSapporo15th2:32:10Cape Town MarathonCape Town4th2:26:252022Two Oceans MarathonCape Town1st3:29:42New York MarathonNew York12th2:30:222023Two Oceans MarathonCape Town1st3:29:06Comrades MarathonDurban1st5:44:54Valencia MarathonValencia11th2:24:032024Two Oceans MarathonCape Town1st3:26:54Comrades MarathonPietermaritzburg1st5:49:462025Two Oceans MarathonCape Town1st3:29:09Comrades MarathonPietermaritzburg1st5:51:192026Two Oceans MarathonCape Town1st3:27:39Comrades MarathonDurban1st5:44:53
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