The very first womens marathon in the Olympics was held in Los Angeles in 1984. While the race was won by Joan Benoit in a time of 2:24, one of the finishes that stood out was that of Gabriela Andersen-Schiess of Switzerland.
With the LA sunshine and temperatures hitting nearly 30 deg C, the conditions were very warm for running the full marathon distance of 26.2 miles. At the time, the rules stipulated that there could only be five water stations and the contestants couldn't be given water anywhere else. Unfortunately for Gabriela Andersen-Schiess, she missed the 5th and last station and got badly dehydrated as a result.
Her entrance to the Olympic stadium and the struggle over the last 400m which took five minutes and forty four seconds to complete would make it a memorable finish. What's maybe even as amazing if that despite her tortured finish, she still managed to finish 37th out of 44 in a time of 2h 48m 42s.
The video is about 10 minutes long...
Inspiring story.
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