Born in
Alessandria, it was only after the removal of her
spleen, in 2010, that she began to reach a national standard of running. At 35 years old, she ranked eighth in the
2011 Berlin Marathon with a time of 2:26:33 hours. This met the qualifying standard for the
2012 Olympic Games, but three other athletes had run faster than her (
Anna Incerti,
Rosaria Console and
Nadia Ejjafini). However, she broke the 12-year-old
Italian record at the
Rotterdam Marathon in April, finishing as runner-up with a time of 2:23:44 hours. The
Turin Marathon saw her finish third with a time of 2:27:04 hours. Straneo has represented the
Italy national athletics team once (at the
2011 European Cross Country Championships) and has won twice at the
national championships. She has two children, Leonardo (born 2006) and Arianna (born 2007). ==National records==