Gerda Steyn (born 3 March 1990) is a South African marathon and ultramarathon athlete. She set the Comrades Marathon down-run record in 2023 with a mark of 5:44:54, becoming the fourth woman under 6 hours for that race.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
In 2014 she went to work in Dubai and joined a running club, where she discovered her talent for running.[1] After completing her first Comrades in 2015, she met 1991 winner Nick Bester who became her coach.[2]
Her first major career victory was in the 2018 Two Oceans Marathon, in a time of 3:39:32.[citation needed]
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.[3]
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.[4]
She competed in the women's marathon at the 2020 Summer Olympics.[5]
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.[6]
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.[7]