FIRST LADIES
Other trailblazers in women’s running
Violet Piercy In 1926, the Londoner became the first woman to run a marathon recognised by the International Association of Athletics Federations, finishing in 3:40:22.
Fanny BlankersKoen
The Dutch athlete won four golds at the 1948 Olympics and set world records at long jump, high jump, sprint and hurdles. That she did all this as a 30-year-old mother of two countered the belief that age and motherhood restricted women’s sporting success.
Diane Leather
The British athlete was the first woman to run a sub-fiveminute mile. It was 1954, just 23 days after Roger Bannister broke four minutes, but her feat went largely unreported. It wasn’t even an official world record, as the event wasn’t recognised for women.
Arlene Pieper Pieper became the first woman to officially finish a marathon in the US, when she finished the Pikes Peak Marathon in 1959.
Bobbi Gibb Hiding in the bushes before the start, Gibb became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, in 1966. She was never officially registered as a finisher.
Kathrine Switzer Switzer signed up for Boston as ‘KV Switzer’ and started with the others, but hit the headlines when race official Jock Semple tried to pull her off the course. He failed.
the full marathon distance, on a dodgy knee, in the heat and smog of the LA summer? The smart money was on a Norwegian duel between Kristiansen and Waitz. Kristiansen had won the London Marathon only a few months earlier and Waitz had won the inaugural World Championship marathon the previous year, as well as the London and New York City marathons. Benoit would be on home turf and she had the fastest time, but she was also, noted
The Observer – ‘another marathoner troubled with a groggy knee’.
And so, that August morning, Benoit and her groggy knee lined up for the first Olympic women’s marathon. It must have felt like everyone was watching: LA was the media capital of the world and live coverage was beamed out to millions. But most eyes probably turned to Waitz or Kristiansen. The diminutive Benoit, in her silver USA kit, seemed more likely to figure as an alsoran. To keep the heat off her head, she wore a loose-fitting white cap. Perhaps it allowed her some anonymity, too.
However, from the gun Benoit made it clear she had no intention of hiding away. Feeling penned, she skipped the first drinks station and moved into the lead. Just a few metres, then a few more, then a few more, pulling away through the early miles, with morning cloud still hanging over the Santa Monica beaches. From five to 10 miles, she accelerated from 5:30min/mile to the 5:20s, opening a 400m gap.
It was a bold gambit that seemed to play into the hands of her rivals. Kristiansen, who in the months before the games had set a 14:58.89 world record in the 5000m, was confident of her superior finishing speed. ‘She [Benoit] is going away now, but we can take her after more kilometres,’ was Kristiansen’s postrace reasoning for her tactics. ‘We had heard she had problem knees, and both Grete and I thought we were in better shape.’
But as each mile ticked by, the lead remained. Benoit looked strong and her rivals showed no signs of being able to bridge the gap. At 19 miles, Waitz mounted a surge but failed to reduce Benoit’s lead. Benoit felt a throb of weakness at mile 22, but maintained her rhythm. ‘Joan pushed the envelope harder than [Frank] Shorter or [Alberto] Salazar or any male marathoner you could name,’ says Kenny Moore, who finished fourth in the marathon at the 1972 Munich Olympics and covered the LA Games for Sports Illustrated. It was as if all the frustration and passion that female runners bottled up for decades finally found vent; Benoit distilled it into a single race.
‘I don’t think I was overly aggressive,’ said Benoit. ‘I had a clear idea of what I wanted to accomplish. I knew that the race would be a matter of pace and strength rather than tactics and finishing speed. That’s the way I trained, and that’s the way I raced. If it didn’t work out, I was prepared to live with the consequences.’
MAKING HISTORY
NEARING THE COLISEUM, BENOIT RAN PAST THE MURAL THAT had inspired her through her difficult summer, and was then ushered into the Olympic stadium for a lap of the track in front of the 75,000-strong crowd. She had time to consider what was happening: ‘I think every child dreams of becoming an Olympic champion, and I was one of those children. So to actually see the possibility of becoming an Olympic champion unfold before my eyes as I approached the Coliseum – I just couldn’t believe it.’
She had time, too, to consider the wider implications: ‘I realised that, if I indeed came across that line first, I would be the first winner of the first women’s Olympic marathon. I knew that carried a laurel wreath, but also a responsibility,’ she said.
Watch the video now of that entrance into the stadium and you see the crowd eagerly awaiting the first runner. Outside, race officials direct Benoit to the 180-degree turn, into the ramp, down to the tunnel. Afterwards, Benoit said of that moment, ‘I thought, “Once you leave this tunnel, your life will be changed forever.”
Out of the dark, a tiny figure in a white cap emerged. And the crowd erupted. It must have been stunning: 26 miles of almost entirely solo running, then to be wrenched out of that marathon reverie by the noise of 75,000 people ecstatically cheering. Still with a spring in her step, Benoit took off her cap and waved it at the crowd, then crossed the line in a blistering 2:24:52.
The race was the fastest women’s marathon ever up to that point. Prior to the Games, only two women had broken 2:30 at one race. On that day, nine women ran sub-2:30. Waitz’s 2:26:18 silver medal was the fastest non-winning performance ever.
As the first women’s Olympic marathon, the race was always going to feature in the record books. But it is also one of the greatest ever Olympic marathon performances. Benoit’s time stood as the Olympic record until 2000, and would also have won gold in 2004 and 2008. Fittingly, alongside her gold medal, she received a piece of art made by marathon pioneer Bobbi Gibb. From one trailblazer to another.
It was a transformative moment for distance running and, for Benoit, it wasn’t even the end of the story. The following year, in Chicago, she ran an American record of 2:21:21, but as injuries accumulated, she raced less. She also started a family, marrying her college sweetheart, Scott Samuelson, and in 1987 her daughter, Abby, was born, followed in 1990 by son Anders. ‘I was never the same runner after I had kids,’ she said. ‘It was just impossible for me to bring the same level of commitment.’
Her longevity has been inspirational: she qualified for the Olympic trials in 1996 and again in 2000, when she was 42.
As a masters runner, she continues to shine. In 2008, at the age of 50, she set a US age group record of 2:49:08. At 52 she did it again, even faster, with 2:47:50. She celebrated her 60th birthday by winning her age group in the Sugarloaf Marathon, in Maine, by more than 70 minutes. She has set up her own races, coaches athletes and inspires countless more.
Her career seems like a bridge into the modern era – from a time where women were excluded from running 26.2 miles, to one where, each year, female athletes are redefining what is possible. We can all follow a path, but we owe so much to the trailblazers who forge them.