The Fight To Establish The Women's Marathon Race Back to History & Records | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter By the 1970s, the Olympic Marathon had come a long way from the dusty roads of Athens. Yet women were still not allowed to compete and the struggle to establish a women's Olympic Marathon was itself something of a long-distance race. Before the 1980s, there were no women's distance races in the Olympics. In the Moscow Games, the longest race for women was the 1,500 meters, which had been instituted in 1972. Women had been excluded from track and field competition altogether until 1928, when the longest race was the 800 meters. Despite a world record by winner Lina Radke of Germany, many of the competitors had not properly prepared for the race and several collapsed in exhaustion. This led Olympic organizers to consider the race too strenuous for women. The president of the IOC, Count Henri Baillet-Latour, even suggested the elimination of all women's competition from the Games.

Such a drastic move was not taken, but until 1960, when the 800 meters reappeared, no race over 200 meters was contested by women in the Olympics. This is not to say there was no tradition of women's long-distance running. Women had been forbidden from participating in the ancient Olympics. A woman who was caught even as a spectator at the Games could face execution. But women in ancient Greece held their own festival to honor the goddess Hera every five years. Only one athletic event was held-a short footrace. When the Olympics were revived in 1896, women were again excluded. But, in March of 1896, Stamatis Rovithi became the first woman to run a marathon when she covered the proposed Olympic course from Marathon to Athens. The following month, a woman named Melpomene presented herself as an entrant in the Olympic Marathon. Race organizers denied her the opportunity to compete. Undiscouraged, Melpomene warmed up for the race out of sight. When the starter's gun sounded, she began to run along the side of the course.

Eventually she fell behind the men, but as she continued on, stopping at Pikermi for a glass of water, she passed runners who dropped out of the race in exhaustion. She arrived at the stadium about an hour and a half after Spiridon Louis won the race. Barred from entry into the now empty stadium, she ran her final lap around the outside of the building, finishing in approximately four and a half hours. One Greek newspaper wrote that the Olympic organizers were discourteous to disallow Melpomene's entry into the race, but nonetheless it would be nearly a century before another woman would run the Olympic Marathon. Violet Piercy of Great Britain was the first woman to be officially timed in the marathon, when she clocked a time of 3:40:22 in a British race on October 3, 1926. Due largely to the lack of women's marathon competition, that time stood as an unofficial world record for thirty-seven years. On December 16, 1963, American Merry Lepper ran a time of 3:37:07 to improve slightly on Piercy's record.

Still, no highly competitive times were recorded simply because there was not women's competition in the race. Before 1972, women had been barred from the most famous marathon outside the Olympics-Boston. That rule did not keep women from running, though. In 1966, Roberta Gibb hid behind a bush at the start of the Boston Marathon, sneaking into the field and finishing the race in an unofficial time of 3:21:25. She was the first woman known to complete the arduous Boston course. Gibb had been inspired to run by the return of her race entry with a note saying that women were not physically capable of running a marathon. "I hadn't intended to make a feminist statement," said Gibb. "I was running against the distance [not the men] and I was measuring myself with my own potential." The following year, number 261 in the Boston Marathon was assigned to entrant K.V. Switzer. In lieu of the pre-race medical examination, Switzer's coach took a health certificate to race officials and picked up the number.

Not until two miles into the race did officials realize that Switzer was a woman, twenty-year-old Kathrine Switzer of Syracuse University. Race director Will Cloney and official Jock Semple tried to grab Switzer and remove her from the race, or at least remove her number, but her teammates from Syracuse fended them off with body blocks. Switzer eventually finished the race after the race timers had stopped running, in 4:20. Switzer had not used her initials on the entry form to deceive the race officials. She was merely a fan of J.D. Salinger and liked the sound of her initials. While Switzer was creating a stir with her unauthorized entry, Roberta Gibb again ran the race, this time being forced off the course just steps from the finish line, where her time would have been 3:27:17. The photographs of race officials chasing after Switzer that appeared in the national papers the next day brought the issue of women's long-distance running to the public. Race officials defended their actions, saying they were only enforcing rules that forbade men and women form competing in the same race and barred women from races of more than one and a half miles.

"I think it's time to change the rules," said Switzer. "They are archaic." Switzer's story and the surrounding publicity had made the quest for equality in road racing for women a political issue. Coming as it did in the midst of the women's liberation movement, it galvanized women in the belief that it was time, as Switzer had said, to change the rules. Slowly, the rules did begin to change. On August 31,1971 Adrienne Beames of Australia became the first women to run a sub-three-hour marathon, smashing that barrier with a time of 2:46:30. In 1972, women were allowed to compete officially in the Boston Marathon for the first time. As running became a more popular sport during the 1970s, more women began competing in marathons. On October 28, 1973, the first all women's marathon was held in Waldniel, West Germany. The success of that race was built on the following October when Dr. Ernst Ban Aaken, a West German and a strong supporter of women's running, sponsored the first Women's International Marathon Championship in Waldniel.

Forty women from seven countries competed in the event. Two years later, when the race was held again, the forty-five finishers represented nine different countries. Still, with the 1980 Summer Olympic Games on the horizon, Olympic organizers had given no serious consideration to creating a women's marathon. Two reasons were often given for this exclusion. First, some experts claimed that women's health would be damaged by long-distance running. This theory was proved false not only by medical studies, but also by the success of women marathoners during the 1970s. Second, the Olympic Charter stated that to be included in the Games, a women's sport must be widely practiced in at least twenty-five countries on at least two continents (for men's events the requirement was fifty countries on three continents). Women's marathoning, the Olympic organizers argued, was simply not popular enough to include. In the late 1970s, Kathrine Switzer, retired form competitive running, led the way toward the inclusion of a women's marathon in the Olympics.

In 1977, Switzer, then director of the Women's Sports Foundation, met an executive for the Avon cosmetics company who told her the company was interested in sponsoring a running event for women. Switzer wrote a seventy-five page proposal describing how Avon might sponsor a series of events, and the company liked her idea so much they hired her to plan the races. The first Avon International Marathon was held in Atlanta, Georgia, in March of 1978, drawing women from nine countries. The 1979 Avon Marathon, held in Waldniel, attracted over 250 world class entrants from twenty-five countries. The theory that women's marathoning was not popular enough to become an Olympic sport was dramatically disproved. Still, the drive for inclusion in the Olympics was far from over. Norwegian runner Grete Waitz won the women's division of the New York City Marathon in 1979 for the second year in a row, crossing the finish line in a time of 2:27:33. She thus became the first woman to run the distance in under 2:30.

The New York Times ran an editorial pointing out that in just fifteen years the women's record had been lowered by one hour. In that same editorial, the Times called for the creation of an Olympic Marathon for women. Although Waitz herself was not active in the drive to create a women's Olympic Marathon, her successes were often cited by supporters of the race. In 1979, marathoner Jaqueline Hansen, who had broken the 2:40 barrier in 1975, teamed with other runners form around the world to form the International Runners Committee to lobby for the inclusion of women's long-distance races in international competition. The committee received support from the Nike shoe company, which ran full-page advertisements in several running magazines calling for a women's Olympic Marathon. The marathon was not the only race being supported, however. The race that seemed to have the best chance for inclusion in the 1984 Games was the 3,000 meters. Some lobbyists felt that the addition of women's races should be made gradually, with the 3,000 meters being added first, followed by the 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters, and then the marathon.

A central player in the drive for the inclusion of women's distance races in the Olympics was Adriaan Paulen, president of IAAF. One of the responsibilities of the IAAF is recommending new track and field events to the IOC. When the IAAF Congress met in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1979, Paulen pointed out that he had long been fighting to get the women's 3,000 meters included in the Olympics. But, he warned that fighting for the other races at the same time might weaken the case for the 3,00 meters or any distance race to be added. "Take things one step at a time" seemed to be the conventional wisdom. Meanwhile, on the roads the case for a women's Olympic Marathon was slowly building. Not only had the Avon races brought international attention and participation to the sport, but the women's marathon was becoming legitimate in other ways as well. The race had received sanction by the American Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) in 1972, and the AAU's first national marathon for women had been held in 1974.

More importantly, the IAAF, an international rather than national organization, had made plans to include women's marathon competitions at future World Cup meets, beginning at the 1981 meet in Rome, and at the World Track and Field Championships beginning in 1983. The 1982 European Marathon Championships, another IAAF event, which would be run on the historic Marathon to Athens course, would also include a women's division. Though the IAAF was not ready to recommend the marathon to the IOC, it was poised to sanction the race in its own meets. Paulen hoped that the inclusion of the women's marathon in these prestigious international meets would lure runners from Eastern European countries into women's marathoning. Opposition from the Soviet Bloc had been one obstacle to Olympic sanction. The first women's marathon officially sanctioned by the IAAF was the Tokyo International, held in November of 1979. IAAF president Adriaan Paulen traveled to Tokyo to watch the race.

To the surprise of many who had lobbied Paulen before, he was so impressed by the level of competition in Tokyo that he announced he would fully support the effort to institute a women's marathon in the Olympics and that he would lobby for 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters races as well. A short time later, the IAAF officially recommended to the IOC that a women's marathon be included in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Although endorsement by the IAAF was an important step toward the establishment if a women's marathon, many obstacles had yet to be overcome. One official from the Los Angeles planning committee claimed the Games were already too big for the inclusion of more events. An official with the IOC argued that the effects of marathon running on women's health needed further study. This second argument was rebutted by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in January of 1980 when it issued an opinion statement saying that "there exists no conclusive scientific or medical evidence that long-distance running is contraindicated for the healthy, trained female athlete. The ACSM recommends that females be allowed to compete at the national and international level in the same distances in which their male counterparts compete.

Powerful people were in favor of the new marathon, too. On the floor of the United States Senate, Sen. Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas introduced a resolution calling for the Senate's support of an Olympic Marathon and other long-distance races for women. Both Adriaan Paulen and president of the IOC Lord Killanin made personal statements in support of the race to the members of the IOC when the committee met during the Moscow Games in July of 1980. The question of creating the new marathon race was deferred until the meeting of the IOC's Executive Board, however, in February of 1981. In the meantime, the third Avon International Marathon was held in London on the final day of the Moscow Olympics. Women from twenty-seven countries competed, and for the first time in history, five women finished below the 2:40 barrier. "Obviously, we think it's time a women's marathon was made part of the Olympics," said Kathrine Switzer, again the organizer of the race.

"We're trying to prove to people that women are just as suited, or even more suitable, for marathoning as men." Switzer traveled to Los Angeles in February of 1981 when the Executive Board of the IOC was scheduled to meet. She knew the vote on the race could be close. The Board was made up of nine countries, eight of which were represented at the meeting. The Soviet Union openly opposed the creation of the race, and Switzer feared that Panama and Romania would side with their political ally. Spain, Japan, India, and New Zealand favored the race. Belgium appeared undecided. Five votes were needed for the resolution to pass. On the morning of February 23, Switzer went to the hotel where the meeting was being held. Unsure what she could do to further her cause, she approached the delegate from Belgium in the hall and began to tell him all about the success of women's marathoning-the number of women competing, the quality of their races, their good health. The delegate took careful notes and then disappeared into the meeting. Unable to stand still while she waited for the result, Switzer went out for a six-mile run.

At 6:30 that evening, the Executive Board of IOC announced that a women's marathon had been given its approval and would likely be included in the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. The committee had even decided to ignore a rule stating that all new events had to be approved four years in advance of their inclusion in the Games. The Soviet Union was the only country to vote against the race. The struggle was almost over. All that remained was approval of the Executive Board's recommendation by the full membership of the IOC. In September of 1981, the IOC met in Baden-Baden, Germany and made several important decisions. They elected the first women members of that body in its eighty-four year history. After a powerful speech by middle-distance runner Sebastian Coe they voted to allow the ruling federations for each Olympic sport set their own requirements for Olympic eligibility, clearing the way for marathoners and other athletes to receive prize and endorsement money while still remaining eligible for Olympic competition. In the midst of all these decisions, they voted on the recommendation of the Executive Board concerning the women's marathon race.

Lost in the headlines about the end of amateurism at the Olympics and the selection of Seoul and Calgary for the 1988 Games was the fact that women had finally won the right to compete in an Olympic Marathon. From Olympic Marathon, Charlie Lovett. Copyright © 1997 by Charlie Lovett. Reproduced with permission of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. , Westport, CT. The Legacy of Joan Benoit Samuelson's Olympic Marathon Win | Runner's World The Legacy of Joan Benoit Samuelson's Olympic Marathon Win Thirty years ago today, she won the first women's Olympic Marathon. By Roger Robinson Tuesday, August 5, 2014, 8:37 am As Joan Benoit Samuelson won the first women's Olympic Marathon in 1984, silver medalist Grete Waitz had just more than 400 meters left to run. Getty Images A hush fell as the stadium's giant screens showed her entering the tunnel. For a few seconds she was invisible to the waiting crowd, and to the world at their televisions.

Then she ran out of the dark tunnel on to the track, a tiny unlikely figure in her oversized white cap, but still bouncy, confident, and strong after 26 searing miles. And the crowd roared. That moment on August 5, 1984, as Joan Benoit Samuelson emerged into the sunlight of the Los Angeles Olympic stadium, was the perfect symbol for the final full acceptance of women's running. Even more than a symbol, the message she gave as she moved from obscurity to acclaim triggered a transformation that 30 years later is still gaining momentum. That was the moment when women's running worldwide moved from the margin to the mainstream. Advertisement Privacy Policy | About Us As with all such key moments in history, it was made seminal by a conjunction of factors – when, what, where, who. When: By 1984, the pioneering work for women's running had been done. Since 1970, the world record had been broken 17 times, coming down from 3:02:53 to 2:22:43. The United States and other nations had held highly competitive trials for their teams for the first women's Olympic marathon.

Benoit Samuelson, only days after knee surgery, could well have been a casualty of the competitive depth. The New York City Marathon had accepted women officially in 1970, Boston in 1972. The United States created the world's first national women's marathon championship in 1974. The Avon global circuit of women's races had developed talent in places with no previous women's sports, and helped marathon athletes to be in Los Angeles from Bolivia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, and more. Avon had held six global marathon championships since 1977, and the women's marathon had been included in the European championships in 1982, and the IAAF World Championships in 1983. Women had raced marathons fast, competitively, and globally – but never before as Olympians. What: When the Los Angeles Olympic Committee agreed to lobby for one (but only one) women's distance event to be added to the Olympic program, the decision was to go for the marathon. It proved inspired.

Women worldwide saw women racing not in the elitist, inaccessible environment of a stadium track, but on regular city streets, passing stores and gas stations, schools and churches, scenery every woman in the world is familiar with. It's on the roads that women's running has boomed. It was the Olympic marathon, not the Olympic 3000 meters, that was their first inspiration. Where: It was women's good fortune that their first Olympic marathon was run in America, in Los Angeles, the media capital of the world, and above all, on television. Billions watched women complete the sporting event that has always symbolized the ultimate in courageous endurance. Billions watched Benoit Samuelson give a superlative display of something every woman can do at some level – not perform agile miracles on the parallel bars or the diving board, but, in her rumpled uniform and quirky hat, simply run. Billions could relate to a distance that they knew was a long day's walk, and admire a woman running that far with such resilient power. Who: Grete Waitz , who was second, would have been a deserving and admired gold medalist, but Grete was with every stride an elite athlete, a tall blond elegant track-honed thoroughbred.

Whereas Joanie… “My mother later said that I looked like a little gray mouse skittering out of a hole,” she wrote of her iconic moment in Running Tide. Can you imagine Shalane Flanaghan or Kara Goucher revealing that? Benoit Samuelson always makes her heroic victory sound as homey as baking blueberry pie. “I decided to break away because I felt hemmed in,” she wrote “[When] the first water station came up, I was darned if I was going to get into a crowd again just for a drink, so I skipped it.” That's her version of how she broke from the field, a move that has inspired a million words of tactical analysis. Benoit Samuelson that day gained, and ever since has retained, such an enormous affectionate following because she manages to combine her extraordinary running with a persona of disarming ordinariness. The growth of women's running owes a lot to that no-fuss home-body image, as well as the time and place of her moment of history. One other key thing historically happened in that race, 24 minutes after Benoit Samuelson finished.

Gabriela Andersen-Schiess, an American-based Swiss, suffered extreme heat exhaustion, and staggered around her final lap on the horrifying edge of collapse. There were fears the episode would set women's running back, reviving talk of impropriety and gynecological damage. But in the context of the supreme achievements of the 43 other finishers, no one made such an interpretation. Women showed that day that they can truly race the marathon. They also showed – for the first time in history – that they had earned the right to suffer physical exhaustion in public. In the darkness of the tunnel, Benoit Samuelson had some moments for reflection. “The noise was muffled and I heard my own footfalls,” she wrote. “I thought, 'Once you leave this tunnel, your life will be changed forever.'” It was in fact a changed new world, one where women's running would become a mainstream culture, that she entered when she left the tunnel and ran out into the sunlight. 30 Years On: The First Women's U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon | Competitor.com 30 Years On: The First Women’s U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon By Allison Pattillo , Published May.

12, 2014, Updated Jul. 31, 2014 at 5:12 PM UTC The front page of the Olympian newspaper tells the story of the first women's U.S. Olympic Trials on May 12, 1984. The 1984 women’s U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon helped changed running forever. What do you remember most about the early 1980s—maybe the dawn of MTV, NASA’s first space shuttle flights, the stress of the Cold War and Michael Jordan lighting the NBA on fire. As for women, it was the dawn of a decade of power and change, with Geraldine Ferraro on the Democratic ticket for vice president, Diane von Fürstenberg’s wrap dress es, leg warmers and leotards at aerobics, shoulder-pad style and the implementation of Title IX a decade in the rear view. But even though Title IX had passed in 1972, all was not equal. At the dawn of the ‘80s, women were largely underrepresented in international competition.

Through the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, the longest running event on the track for women was the 1500-meter run. In 1981, in a controversial vote, it was decided that the 3,000-meter run and the marathon would both be included in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. The first Olympic marathon would be huge, but initially more monumental than that among domestic runners was the first women’s U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon held 30 years ago this week—May 12 to be exact— in Olympia, Wash. On one level, it signaled an opportunity—finally—to do anything men could do, and on another level, it was a showcase of American running talent. There were 267 qualifiers (who reached the 2:51:16 qualifying time), 238 starters and 197 finishers. The race set numerous records at the time—including 31 sub-2:40 finishers—but more importantly, it sparked the women’s running boom of the 1980s that has yet to slow down.

In 1980, women made up less than 10 percent of U.S. marathoners. As of 2013, women represent 43 percent of marathon finishers in the U.S., according to Running USA. In some ways, the dawn of the women’s running explosion of the decades that followed was the starting line of the Olympic Trials race in Olympia. Two-time Boston Marathon winner Joan Benoit (Samuelson) from Maine ran the “the race of my life” just 17 days after arthroscopic knee surgery to win the historic race in 2:31:04. Oregon’s Julie Brown was second (2:31:41) and Ohio’s Julie Isphording claimed third (2:32:26) to form the first women’s Olympic marathon team in U.S. history. “Knowing the Olympics were going to be hosted on U.S. soil in Los Angeles gave me a desire to make the team,” Samuelson recalls.

“I wanted to give the Trials my best shot.” The road to the Olympics In 1967, when Kathrine Switzer became the first official female to enter and finish the Boston Marathon (Roberta Gibb ran it as a bandit in 1966), the general consensus was that women weren’t physically able to stand the rigors of running long distances. Even though it wasn’t her intent, Switzer’s finish pushed the concept of women’s long distance running into the spot light, eventually calling years of conventional wisdom (running is bad for reproductive health, causes infertility), tradition and misguided assumptions (women will lose their femininity) into question. “I realized it was up to women like me to change perceptions,” Switzer says. “Women needed the opportunity to run.” Switzer established a career in writing, broadcasting and sports marketing, eventually becoming director of sports and public relations for Avon Products, Inc. Avon had the foresight and budget to support Switzer in creating the Avon International Racing Circuit, a series of women’s only races with events in 25 countries on five continents in its heyday during the late 1970’s and early 80’s.

Racing on an international stage provided competitive female runners a platform to demonstrate their capabilities and gave the sport the recognition it needed to be noticed by the International Olympic Committee. When the U.S. boycotted the 1980 Olympics in the Soviet Union, all eyes and media cameras turned to the Avon World Championship Marathon in London, where smooth execution by Switzer and her team and tenacious grit among the racers left no doubt it was time for women to have more running opportunities in the Olympics. In 1981, by a vote of 8-1 (Russia cast the lone opposing vote), the IOC voted to include the women’s marathon in the 1984 games. Inaugural Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials Lisa Rainsberger grew up running, but definitely noticed a different standard for women. “There were women’s sports, but they weren’t the same as men’s. ‘It’s for girls’ had a negative connotation,” Rainsberger says. “I grew up having to fight for equality.” She was a student and track athlete at the University of Michigan, when the Olympic Trials were announced. “The marathon was the only long distance option for women and I wanted to run at the Trials,” Rainsberger recalls.

“There was a groundswell of excitement around women’s running and I sensed this was history in the making.” Her collegiate coach—a woman—said “no” to her desire because she thought Big 10 college championships were more important. Rainsberger disagreed, forfeiting her scholarship so she could join the other trail-blazing, Olympic hopefuls in Washington. She placed fourth at the trials, a dubious place to finish and one she would repeat in 1988 and 1992, but it helped her launch a successful career as a marathoner. The same goes for Jenny Spangler, who was a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Iowa at the time. “I remember very clearly standing on the starting line and feeling extremely proud to be with these women,” says Spangler, who finished 33rd at the 1984 Trials in Olympia. “Women were finally getting to see what we could do, it was an immense feeling of satisfaction.” Samuelson ran both cross country and track during her years at Bowdoin College (1975-1979), and also trained with the Liberty Athletic club in Boston.

She ran to run and to push herself from within, not to make a political statement about women’s place in sports. “I let my running do my talking,” Samuelson says. 30 years and a world of difference “My daughter lives in a gender-neutral society, she doesn’t realize there ever was a difference,” Rainsberger says of her 15-year old Katie, who is a standout high school cross country runner in Colorado Springs. “And that’s the way it should be. We’re no longer men or women, we’re all runners.” Now professional female marathoners compete for prize money and top honors just like their male counterparts. Recreational women runners can participate in any one of an estimated 850 marathons across the U.S. or stick with the girls at dozens of women’s only events nationwide. And, if you look at running events of all distances, there are more female finishers than male, 56 percent to 44 percent (as of 2013, according to Running USA). “We had trouble getting seven girls for a cross country team in high school,” says Spangler, who went on to win the 1996 U.S.

Olympic Trials Marathon in Columbia, S.C. “I think the biggest accomplishment in women’s running over the past 30 years is the growth, in both numbers and confidence.” Women no longer have to run in men’s cotton uniforms, and advances in shoes, equipment, technology and apparel make it easier and more comfortable for people to pick up running at any point in their lives. “These days there seems to be a club for any type of runner,” Samuelson says. “It’s affordable, accessible and anybody can do it.” Whether women run alone or in groups, to race or for fitness, even while pregnant or pushing children in jogging strollers, there’s no denying that women on the run has become the norm. “Its one of those sports, where you can put on your shoes and walk out the door,” says Spangler, who runs a thriving coaching business in the Chicago area. “It’s something we can all do and fit in our day.” Looking back to 1984 Women had been running competitive marathons in the U.S. and overseas since the early 1970s, when the Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon both allowed women to compete and the U.S.

had established itself as one of the leading countries with names like Miki Gorman, Patti (Lyons) Catalano, Jacqueline Hansen, Nina Kusick and Cheryl Bridges among the early pacesetters. Olympia was the crossroads between the past and the future and Benoit (Samuelson), Brown and Isphording and a few hundred other runners rang in the next generation—and many generations to come—the second Saturday in May 1984. The Olympics later that summer were huge and Joanie’s win was huge. But the Trials race set the stage for everything. “Running at the Trials in Olympia was a defining moment for a lot of women,” says Rainsberger, 53, who would go on to win five marathons, including the 1985 Boston Marathon. “It gave me the option to make a career out of running.” “I can’t believe it’s been 30 years,” says Samuelson, who is still running strong at 56.

“I was in the right place at the right time for both the 1984 Trials and the Olympics.” “I knew nobody was going to understand the importance of getting the women’s marathon into the Olympics until the first woman came into the stadium in Los Angeles,” the 67-year-old Switzer recalls. “When Joan Benoit won the gold, it changed the world thinking of women’s limitations.” Training Women at the Olympic Games Home > Events > Olympics > Summer > History > Women Women at the Olympic Games It has been a long road to equality for women at the Olympic Games, and it is still continuing. Participation in the Ancient Olympic Games was limited to male athletes only. The only way women were able to take part was to enter horses in the equestrian events. There are records of several winning women horse owners. As the owner of the horse teams, they were credited with the victory, though they were most likely not present at the events. Even in the early years of the modern Olympics, women were not well represented (consequently a rival Women's Olympics was held). Women participated for the first time at the 1900 Paris Games with the inclusion of women's events in lawn tennis and golf.

Women's athletics and gymnastics debuted at the 1928 Olympics. Over time more women's events were added. In 2012, women's boxing was introduced, resulting in no remaining sports that do not include events for women. Equality in the available sports is one thing, but in many countries women do not have equal rights to participate in sports and the opportunity to participate in the Olympic Games. Prior to the 2012 Olympics in London, three Muslim countries have never before sent a female athlete: Qatar, Brunei, and Saudi Arabia. However, they all bowed to IOC pressure and sent female athletes to London. Now every national Olympic committee has sent women to the Olympic Games, a small step. Milestones At the first modern Olympic Games in Athens 1896 , no women competed, as de Coubertin felt that their inclusion would be "impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect." Women first competed at the 1900 Paris Games. Women were allowed to compete in lawn tennis and golf, though there were three French women competing in croquet and there was at least one woman sailor as part of mixed crews.

It is commonly believed that first woman to win an Olympic event was England's Charlotte Cooper, who won the tennis singles title, however Swiss sailor Hélène de Pourtalès won a gold medal as part of a team in sailing earlier than this. (see more firsts , and more on Pourtalès ) Here are the first women competitors in the Modern Olympic Games of 1900, in chronological order were May 22 - Helen de Pourtales, Switzerland (Yachting) May 31 - Elvira Guerra, France (Equestrian). There may have been another woman also competing in the equestrian events. Jun 28 - Mme Ohnier, Madame Depres, and Mme Filleaul Brohy, France (Croquet) July 11 - winner Charlotte Cooper, Great Britain (Tennis) plus other female competitors. Oct 3 - winner Margaret Abbott, USA (Golf) plus other female competitors. Women competed in swimming events for the first time in 1912, but none of them were from America, which did not allow its female athletes to compete in events without long skirts.

The first women's swimming gold medal was won by the Australian Sarah 'Fanny' Durack, who won the 100m freestyle in 1912. In 1928, women competed in track and field events for the first time; however, so many collapsed at the end of the 800-meter race that the event was banned until 1960. Women's shooting events were first included in the Olympics in 1984. There were three events, three position rifle, air rifle and sport pistol. In 1996, a women's only sport was introduced - Softball (softball is no longer part of the Olympic program) The 2000 Olympics was the first time that women were allowed to compete in the Olympics in weightlifting. A women's wrestling competition was introduced in 2004. Women compete in freestyle wrestling , but not greco-roman. There are only two Olympic sports where men and women compete directly against each other; equestrian and sailing , though in sailing it is now only in one event.

Tennis (in early Games in since 2012) and Badminton (since 1996) have mixed doubles events. Qatar, Brunei and Saudi Arabic all sent female participants to the London 2012 Olympic Games, meaning now every national Olympic committee will have sent women to the Olympic Games. With the addition of women's boxing at the 2012 London Games, there are men and women competing in all Olympic sports. However, there are still two sporting disciplines that are solely for women: synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics. In cycling in 2012, for the first time men and women competed in the same number of events in all cycling disciplines. However, women have shorter distances for some events. In Rio 2016, 44% of medals were be awarded in women's events, the highest ever. In 1984, the figure was only just over 25%. Great Female Olympic Achievements In 1948, Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen won four gold medals, the equivalent of the medals Jesse Owens had won twelve years earlier.

She held the world record in the high and long jumps, but did not compete in those as the rules prohibited women from competing in more than three individual events. British Equestrian, Lorna Johnstone was 70 years and 5 days old when she rode at the 1972 Games, thus being the oldest woman ever to compete at an Olympic Games. Joan Benoit of the USA won the first women's Olympic marathon in Los Angeles in 1984. Soviet Maria Gorokhovskaya - unhindered by the limits set on female competitors at earlier Games - in 1952 set a record for most medals won by a woman in one Olympics, with two golds and five silvers. US Shooter Margaret Murdock won a silver medal in rifle competition (which at that time included men and women) at the 1976 Olympics. She was the first woman to win a medal in shooting at the Olympic Games. Share: Joan Benoit Wins the First Women's Marathon Gold play Joan Benoit becomes an Olympic champion at the 1984 Games, when the women's marathon is first introduced as an Olympic sport.

After recovering from a knee surgery, Benoit manages to cross the finish line first in 2:24.52, almost four minutes ahead of Grete Waitz. Rosa Mota of Portugal claims the bronze medal in 2:26.57. Athletics Marathon Women's Final - Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics - Joan Benoit (USA), Grete Waitz (NOR), Rosa Mota (POR) Athletics, BENOIT, Joan, Legends, Los Angeles 1984, marathon, United States of America, Women, Olympic Marathon Los Angeles 1984 XXIII Olympiad Back to History & Records | Previous Chapter Following as it did the long battle for inclusion in Olympic competition, the race that took place on August 5, 1984 was something like a victory lap for all women marathoners.

Among the favored starters were Norwegian Grete Waitz, who had never lost a marathon she had finished; Portugal's Rosa Mota, who had won the marathon in the European Championships in 1982; and American Joan Benoit, who had set the world record of 2:22:43 in the woman's record many times and had run the first sub-2:30 marathons, had never met Benoit in a marathon race. Benoit was born in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, in 1957. Her earliest athletic passion was skiing, taught to her by her father who had been an army skier during World War II. As a high school sophomore she broke her leg on the slopes. As part of her recovery from that accident she began to run and she found that she liked running just as much as skiing. In college she played field hockey while continuing to run. When she showed up at practice one day sore from a thirteen-mile run the day before, the coach made her sit out the rest of the season and Benoit quit the team and started running full time.

In 1979 she entered the Boston Marathon, her second marathon ever, as a Bowdoin College senior and won the women's division, setting an American record in the process. After graduation, Benoit worked as the women's track and cross-country coach at Boston University while she continued to train 100 miles a week. With the promise of the first ever women's Olympic Marathon in 1984, Benoit hoped to be in her best shape ever so she could make a run for the gold. As she lined up for the start of the Olympic race, though, Benoit felt lucky to be in the field at all. Seventeen days before the Olympic trials she had undergone knee surgery. She recovered quickly and won the qualifying race to secure one of three spots on the American team. Benoit and the two other qualifiers, Julie Brown and Julie Isphording, each received a bronze figurine of a running woman for their success in the Olympic trials. Fittingly, the sculpture was created by none other than Roberta Gibb, who had broken the gender barrier of the Boston Marathon so many years before.

On June 17, Benoit had won the Olympic Trials Exhibition 10,000 meters race by an impressive margin. Unlike the marathon, the 10,000 meters had not yet been approved for women's competition in the Olympics, though it would be on the program four years later in Seoul. Benoit traveled to Los Angeles several days before the Games began, but her recent appearance on television made it impossible for her to take training runs without being recognized. After the Opening Ceremonies, the private Benoit flew to Eugene, Oregon, to stay with friends and prepare for the race. Four days later she was back in Los Angeles. She had a near-sleep-less night on August 4, and then the day that women runners had been campaigning for for so long finally dawned. The athletes marched onto the track by nation in alphabetical order, with the United States entering last as the host country. 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. Fifty competitors from twenty-eight nations left Santa Monica College at 8:00A.M.

and began to make their way through twenty-six miles of warm muggy Los Angeles. Ironically, the field was deeper than it might have been if the political struggles of women's long-distance runners had been more successful. The marathon and the 3,000 meters were still the only long-dis-tance races for women in the Olympics. 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. "I did not want to take the lead," said Benoit afterward, "but I promised myself I'd run my race and nobody else's and that's exactly what I did. I didn't have any second thoughts."15 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. After all, a marathoner needs other competitors to push her along. How could Benoit possibly keep up a winning pace running all alone? But her lead widened over the next several miles, and none of the other runners made an attempt to go after her. They all assumed she was over-extending herself and that the heat would eventually break her, but Benoit was running comfortably and increasing her lead with every stride. The picture of the lone woman in her white painter's cap would become the indelible image of this historic race. At five miles, she had a thirteen-second lead over the other runners.

By the nineteen-mile mark, that lead had grown to two minutes, and she had built that lead during the coolest part of the race. Now the runners in the second place pack, Waitz, her teammate Ingrid Kristiansen, and Rosa Mota, had to catch Benoit in the increasing heat of the day. Though Grete Waitz would close the gap slightly, her effort would come too late. The race would finish on the track in the Los Angeles Coliseum, which was serving as Olympic stadium for the second time. With that building in sight, Benoit passed by a giant mural of her victory in the 1983 Boston Marathon. The painting, on the side of a building, had been com-missioned by Nike. Though slightly embarrassed by the painting, Benoit felt inspired too. Now, she was close to winning another, much more important marathon. Passing through the tunnel that led into the Olympic Stadium, Benoit realized that her life was about to change completely. "Once you leave this tunnel," she told herself, "your life will be changed forever." Of course, it was too late to turn back. Benoit emerged into the roar of the coliseum and told herself to look straight ahead.

"You're not finished," she thought, "Get around the track and nail this thing down."16 And she kept on going, unfazed by the 77,000 cheering fans who welcomed her entrance onto the Olympic track. With 200 yards to go, she finally cracked her grim reserve and waved her hat at the crowd, smiling broadly. She finished in 2:24:52, the third fastest women's marathon ever and a time that would have won thirteen of the twenty previous men 5 Olympic marathons. GreteWaitz finished second in 2:26:18, and Rosa Mota sur-prised everyone by finishing third, crossing the finish line thirty-nine seconds later . Mota had surged past Kristiansen at the twenty-mile mark and was able to maintain a lead over the Norwegian to win the bronze in a personal best time of 2:26:57. Waltz remarked later that while her own performance had been good, Benoit's had been great. Benoit later admitted that the race had been very easy for her.

After appearances on all three major television networks, Benoit flew home to Maine three days after the marathon, anxious to return to her quiet life and avoid the spotlight that had fallen on her at the Olympics. But Joan Benoit (now Joan Samuelson) did find that her life was changed by winning the first women's Olympic Marathon. She became the idol of millions of American women who run. Just as Frank Shorter had touched off a running boom by his victory in 1972, which showed American men the excitement and reward of long-distance running, Joan Benoit legitimized the efforts of all those women who strove to follow in her footsteps. She became, in a single morning, the leader of the American women's running movement and a worldwide celebrity. It can be said with some confidence that Joan Benoit was to women's running in America in the 1980s what Spiridon Louis was to Greek pride in the 1890s. But to herself, she would always be a simple, private person who loved to run. Back in her native Maine, she married her college sweetheart. In 1985 in Chicago, she set another American record in the marathon, running 2:21:21.

The most dramatic finish of the race was not Benoit's impressive victory, but the finish of Swiss competitor Gabriele Andersen-Scheiss, who entered the stadium fifteen minutes later suffering from heat exhaustion. The crowd gasped in horror as Andersen-Scheiss staggered onto the track, her torso twisted, her right arm straight and her left arm limp, her right knee strangely stiff. She waved away medical personnel who rushed to help her knowing that, if they touched her, she, like Dorando Pietri seventy-six years earlier, would be disqualified. For nearly six minutes Andersen-Scheiss hobbled around the track, occasionally stopping and holding her head. Doctors watched her carefully and determined she was in no immediate danger. She collapsed over the finish line in thirty-seventh place into the arms of waiting medics. Fortunately, Andersen-Scheiss recovered quickly. Her time of 2:48:45 would have won the gold medal in the first five Olympic marathons. An embarrassing note to the women's race of 1984 concerned Leda Diaz de Cano of Honduras. In the midst of world-class competition, de Cano fell behind immediately, trailing by over six minutes just three miles into the race.

By the nine-mile mark she was last by nearly a half-hour, and officials convinced her to drop out. Coubertin's credo of the importance of taking part had given way to the importance of keeping to the schedule on the track and allowing cars back on the freeways of Los Angeles. Kathrine Switzer had not disappeared from the running scene when the women ran their historic race in Los Angeles. She was beginning a new career as a sports commentator and watched Joan Benoit's dramatic finish on a television monitor while working for ABC television. Women marathoners had arrived at the Olympics and no one doubted their right to be there. From the remarkable solo performance of American gold-medal winner Joan Benoit to the dramatic courage of Gabriele An-dersen-Scheiss, the first women's Olympic Marathon was an event no Olympic spectator would soon forget. From Olympic Marathon, Charlie Lovett. Copyright © 1997 by Charlie Lovett. Reproduced with permission of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. , Westport, CT. The First Women’s Olympic Marathon | Runner's World Running Times Elite Runners The First Women’s Olympic Marathon Thirty years ago marked an historic moment for women’s running.

A runner in the back of the pack recalls her grueling finish. By Valerie Moyer Tuesday, August 5, 2014, 9:43 am Gabriele Andersen-Schiess struggles for more than 5 minutes to cover the last 500m of the marathon. John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images On Aug. 5, 1984, Joan Benoit Samuelson won the first Olympic women’s marathon in 2:24:52. A few minutes later, Switzerland’s Gabriele Andersen-Schiess staggered into the L.A. Olympic stadium, suffering in the humidity. It took her more than 5 minutes to cover the last 500 meters of the race, but race officials could not touch her, or she would have been disqualified. While the world watched, she stumbled across the finish line in 2:48 and was rushed to a hospital—where she recovered quickly. Andersen-Schiess talked to Running Times about her Olympic experience from her home in Sun Valley, Idaho. Running Times: That day, did you feel the history of the first women’s Olympic marathon?

Advertisement Privacy Policy | About Us Gabriele Andersen-Schiess: I think we all had a sense. They had a ceremony at the start, so it was definitely kind of a historic moment. And for us runners too, because it was a big step from the longest distance being a 3,000m, going up to the marathon. There were a lot of us who just weren’t that good at shorter stuff. They finally realized that there’s really no reason not to have women run longer distances. RT: Did you feel the race was about disproving that women were too weak to run the marathon? AS: Not really, for me it was always not really a valid notion. I mean even going back even further in history, the first time they had the women run the 800m I think they had the same problem. They thought, ‘Oh there’s no way they can run that far. It’s not good for the womb’ and all that stuff. But [the men] weren’t any better in this marathon [in Los Angeles]. They had some pretty bad finishes there for some of them, and I think now we agree that it’s not a valid thought. RT: When did you start to feel bad?

AS: The first part of the course was probably pretty good, because we were closer to the coast and it wasn’t that hot yet. But then when you got on the freeway, it just got tough because of the heat, at least for me. Until the last maybe mile or two, I was where I thought I would be in the field. My goal was to be in the first 20, maybe around 15th. I had no illusions; I knew I couldn’t win. I just didn’t have that much speed, or preparation like some of these girls that had been running all their lives. So for me it was mainly making the team at that age and being part of that race. The last half-mile I still thought I could finish and make it. Progressively, it got worse, especially once you came in the stadium, because the sun was fully on that stadium. But I still knew it was only a little over a lap that we had to go in the stadium and you know I pretty much just gutted it out. Click here to view a video of Andersen-Schiess in the stadium RT: Were the Olympics the highlight of your career?

AS: Before [the Olympics] it was when I ran the California International Marathon and set a personal record [2:33:25]. And then after that, definitely going to the Olympics. You know in my mid-30s, I didn’t even think of the Olympics because before that it was only the 3K on the track. I moved to the United States so I wasn’t really running in a club or with people anymore. So then when they decided to have a marathon, and I ran a couple good marathons then all of a sudden, like in a year and a half, I had the chance to make the team. RT: Are you reminded of the race often? AS: No (laughs). Especially not now after 30 years. Once in a while I think about the experience of being at the Olympics, every time I watch the Olympics again, you remember what it was all about. It was exciting for me, living in the Olympic village, with the other athletes. The whole experience was quite something because I just hadn’t had the experience to do that many races in an organized surrounding.

A lot of track runners go to events in the summer in Europe and it’s kind of a similar atmosphere, and for me it was pretty new. RT: How do you stay active now? AS: I don’t run anymore, because I had to have a knee replacement, so my knees are not too good. I’ve done mountain bike races up until a couple years ago. I’ve had a lot of injuries, a lot of falls. You definitely get better at it, but it’s definitely a high-risk sport. That’s one of the reasons I stopped racing. I still like to ride; I’m just a little more careful. Cross Country [skiing] I still race, because we live in a ski area and we have a lot of local races. How Joanie's '84 Olympic Marathon Victory Energized Women's Running | Competitor.com PHOTOS: Joan Benoit Samuelson Career Highlights After having knee surgery just 17 days out from the inaugural women’s U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon, it was questionable whether or not Samuelson would make the U.S.

team, but she did—winning that historic race on May 12, 1984 in Olympia, Wash., in 2:31:04—along with the two other U.S. qualifiers, Julie Brown and Julie Isphording. And on Aug. 5, 1984, Samuelson was one of 50 women from 28 countries who stood ready at Santa Monica College for the 8 a.m. marathon start. The first global women’s marathon championship for women had occurred the previous summer at the inaugural world championships of track & field in Helsinki (won by Norway’s Grete Waitz), but this was different because it was the Olympics and was being watched by an international audience. Given the lack of long-distance opportunities for women at the Olympics, the marathon field was stacked with the best female runners of the day, including Waitz, Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway (the world-leader in the marathon with a 2:24:26 clocking), Lorraine Moller from New Zealand, Priscilla Welch of Great Britain and Portugal’s Rosa Mota, the reigning European champion.

(Women were able to compete in the 800 and 1,500 as usual in 1984, plus the 3,000 for the first time—but there wasn’t yet a 5,000 or 10,000 for women.) Samuelson didn’t want to lead the entire day and she had also promised herself she would run her own race. Yet by mile 3, she took the lead and never looked back. She even skipped the first water stop so as not to get drawn back into the pack. Many wondered if she would be able to maintain her pace or if she would succumb to the heat. Instead she increased her lead. “I was able to push from within,” Samuelson recalls. “I had an innate desire to succeed.” RELATED: 30 Years On—The First Women’s U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon Samuelson finished in 2:24:52 for gold. Waitz crossed the line in 2:26:18 for silver, followed closely by Mota in 2:26:57. Of the 50 women who started, 44 finished the race.

Brown placed 36th, but Isphording dropped out. Women’s running pioneer Kathrine Switzer, a long-time champion for the women’s Olympic marathon, was a commentator for ABC Sports for the women’s marathoner. She’s says it was “a dream come true” to watch the day unfold, something she knew would open a floodgate of inspiration and opportunity for women.

Question: In what year was the first Olympic marathon for women
Answer: 1984