caption coach event club headercolor birth_place weight imagesize height pb sport birth_date image article_title name
eva-maria gradwohl in the 2008 wachau marathon harald bauer marathon sv ada happy lauf anger lightblue weiz , austria 57 kg lb 0 on 180px 1.68 0 on 2:30:52 athletics 29 march 1973 eva-maria gradwohl wachaumarathon 2008.jpg eva-maria gradwohl
 eva-maria gradwohl
eva-maria gradwohl

eva-maria gradwohl -lrb- born march 29 , 1973 in weiz -rrb- is a retired austrian long-distance and marathon runner .
she is also four-time austrian national champion in half-marathon , three-time in marathon , and two-time in 10-km road run .
gradwohl started her sporting career as a cyclist , until she began long-distance running at the vienna marathon .
in 2002 , she won her first national championship title in the wachau marathon , with a time of 1:14:47 for the half-marathon race , in addition to her personal best of 1:13:25 , and two other titles in vienna for the following year .
she had also won medals in numerous marathon races , including silver at the stockholm marathon in 2006 , and gold at the linz marathon in 2008 , beating her personal best time of 2:30:51 .
gradwohl did not only set a national record for her best possible time , but also reached a qualifying standard time of 2:33:00 , which made her eligible to compete at the 2008 summer olympics in beijing .
at age thirty-five , gradwohl made her official olympic debut , and competed in the women 's marathon .
she ran and finished the race in fifty-seventh place , with a time of 2:44:24 , just fourteen minutes behind her personal best set in linz .
in the following year , gradwohl continued her winning streak at the florence and linz marathon .
