With the athletes in each delegation arranged by height, tiny Joan Benoit was the final runner to enter the Santa Monica College stadium, starting point of the marathon. Ironically, the field was deeper than it might have been if the political struggles of women's long-distance runners had been more successful. A lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the International Runners Committee to force the inclusion of 5,000 and 10,000-meter races in the 1984 Games had been unsuccessful. So, on the morning of August 5, the greatest women's distance runners in the world took to the streets of Los Angeles. Some were 5,000-meter specialists, some preferred the 10,000 meters, and many were best at the marathon, but all made history.
Olympic marathons are usually races of many lead changes and careful tactics.
Well thought out pacing and strategically calculated surges help competitors toward victory. In the first women's Olympic Marathon, how-ever, only one tactical decision affected the race for the gold medal. A mere fourteen minutes into the race, American Joan Benoit, who felt the pace was too slow, pulled ahead of the rest of the pack. Shortly after she pulled away, the runners came to the first water stop, but Benoit had no interest in getting tangled back up in the pack, so she skipped it. To many, Benoit's move may have looked foolish.