From Boston to Los Angeles: Women Marathoners’s Changing Perspectives from Pleasure to Empowerment and the Establishment of the Women’s Olympic Marathon

Abstract

April of 1966 was the first time a woman ran the Boston Athletic Association Marathon. That woman was Roberta “Bobbi” Gibb. Following Gibb came many other women, including Kathrine Switzer, the first “official” woman to run the BAA event, and Nina Kuscsik, the first winner of the women’s division. Almost 20 years later, in 1984, the first women’s Olympic Marathon was held in Los Angeles. This paper will examine why these three women ran and how their reasons for running changed based on their experiences. It will also analyze how their experiences shaped their efforts to work towards the establishment of the women’s Olympic Marathon. By analyzing these women’s experiences, the paper will determine their connection to the women’s movement at the time and if they set out to make a feminist statement.