Boston Marathon's first woman finisher Kathrine Switzer competes 50 years later

 

Back in 1967, the Boston Marathon was an all male event and women weren't allowed to compete. A then 20 year old Katherine Switzer entered using only her initials K. V. Switzer and ran. The iconic photo above shows the moment the official, Jock Semple, tried to remove the number and force Ms Switzer from the course. She finished the race in an unofficial time of 4h 20m.

Fifty years on, aged 70, Katherine Switzer ran the 2017 Boston Marathon wearing the same race number '261' that she wore all those years ago. This time, she wasn't alone as she was joined by more than 12,300 women who started the race. Her finish time was 4h 44m...pretty good considering she's 70!


Link...
Katherine Switzer...the first woman to enter and run the Boston Marathon

Katherine Switzer...the first woman to enter and run the Boston Marathon

The year...1967. The widely held belief at the time was that a woman could not run a full Marathon of 26.2 miles and that short distance races were more appropriate.

However, 20-year old Katherine Switzer had some different ideas. Having trained with the men in her club, she believed she could run a Marathon. Having checked the entry conditions for the Boston Marathon, she could find no mention of anything preventing a woman from taking part so she registered under the gender-neutral "K. V. Switzer".

During the race however, Jock Semple, a race official attempted to remove her from the race, and is noted to have shouted, "Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers." However, Switzer's boyfriend, who was running with her, shoved Semple aside and sent him flying. The photographs taken of the incident made world headlines. Her finishing time was 4:20 minutes.

For her trouble, she was banned from all races by the Amateur Athletic Union even though she didn't break any rules. In time though this was overturned and Switzer would go on to win the 1974 New York City Marathon, with a time of 3:07:29. Just eight years after the famous incident, Switzer returned to Boston again in 1975 to run a personal best time of 2:51:37.

In the BBC Word Service Witness programme last Saturday, there was a 9 minute audio clip about Katherine Switzer. You can hear it HERE