I was impressed and surprised by the story of Kathrine Switzer as reported by the Washington Post yesterday. Switzer was the first woman to run officially in the Boston marathon. At the time there was no specific prohibition on female runners but none had actually tried it. Perversely, that run in Boston in 1967 caused a backlash ban on women in marathons, which wasn't overcome until 1972. Nevertheless, she effectively opened the sport for women, and helped make the marathon an Olympic sport.
I'm not a runner (not since my army boots wore out) and certainly never did marathons, so it came as a surprise to me to learn that women had ever not been permitted to run. (Pro football, maybe but running?) But when you think about it, that was the conventional thinking of the time: Women were "the weaker sex." And the attitude of the Boston marathon coordinator, Jock Semple, who tried to stop her when he discovered there was a woman in "his" race, was also typical.
Switzer, who is now in her 70s, had the last laugh. She has a wikipedia page; Semple does not.
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