Sexist marathon rules forbid women to compete — until this feminist put her foot down

Oh how silly men are. With the London Marathon having just finished it beggars belief to think that their testosterone befuddled brains once banned women from running marathons allegedly for fear of their reproductive health.

So much so that half a century ago Karen Switzer was assaulted by race officials for having the temerity to run the 1967 Boston Marathon. She became the first woman to officially enter and run the 42km race - despite the fact that women weren't officially allowed to take part until 1972.

Last week Switzer, now 70, returned to the start line exactly half a century after that picture was taken following a lifetime of campaigning for the rights of women to compete in the same events as men.

Before 1967 and since its inception in 1897 the Boston Marathon was men-only. The only woman to have tried to complete it was Bobbi Gibb who, a year before, dashed out of a bush and over the finish line.

story_article_left1

In 1967, Switzer registered officially under a gender-neutral name (KV Switzer), was given a bib with the number 261 on it and wore a baggy grey tracksuit that ensured start-line officials assumed she was "just one of the guys".

Despite the attempt to drag her off course, she finished in 4 hours 20 minutes. But it would become a life-defining event for the 20-year-old Syracuse University student.

"I wasn't trying to make a political statement, I just wanted to race," she says. "He came up behind me quickly, grabbed me by my shoulders and tried to pull my bib off. He pushed me screaming, 'Get the hell out of my race'."

She escaped and ran on, mulling over inequality within the sport and how she could change it.

"I made the decision to finish no matter what. I would have finished on my hands and knees at that point. That was the definitive change - I'd gone from embarrassed and terrified to radicalised."

But change wouldn't come easily - it took Switzer the next five years to persuade the Boston Athletic Association to allow women to run in the Boston Marathon. In 1977, she created the Avon Women's International Running Circuit, arranging 400 races in 27 countries for more than a million women.

Switzer collected medical evidence on stamina and endurance and successfully lobbied the International Olympic Committee to include a women's marathon for the first time in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. "I am very persuasive - but you can't argue with the facts."

Another of her achievements was winning the New York City Marathon in 1974, although her running career started at Syracuse when she joined the men's athletic team (there was no women's) aged 19 and decided to prove her mettle to doubting coach, Arnie Briggs, who believed it a physical impossibility that women could cover the distance required for a marathon.

"He told me women are too weak and fragile and I might injure myself or my reproductive organs would get damaged. That was the myth at the time."

Switzer swiftly proved him wrong, running 50km - 8km more than the regulation marathon distance to show she would complete it at all costs - at which point he fainted in shock, but agreed to help her enter the 1967 Boston Marathon.

mini_story_image_hright1

She hasn't stopped since. Last week, Switzer slid into another pair of Adidas trainers - just like the pair she wore half a century ago - and competed on a circuit she hadn't attempted since that illegal 1967 race.

This time she took part for 261 Fearless, a non-profit organisation named after her 1967 bib number that Switzer set up to encourage women to experience the sense of empowerment, strength and self-esteem that running brings.

''The money raised is going to help empower women around the world. With the progress we've made in the past 50 years, imagine what we're going to do in the next 50." - The Daily Telegraph

• This article was originally published in The Times.