Women Who Changed the Run

by GRP runner Jess Scheriff

(photo by Phil Belena)

March is more than just a month to draft brackets – it’s Women's History Month. Which makes it a fitting time to step back and examine how women’s access to running has developed. It’s easy to take the current structure of the sport for granted: the races, the opportunities, the ability to compete at every level. But much of that is relatively recent, and it exists because of the women who pushed the sport forward.

Women’s distance running, in particular, took shape gradually, often because individuals pushed into spaces where they weren’t formally included.

More often than not, change came from participation – women entering races, setting performances, and forcing the sport to respond.

What follows isn’t a complete history, but a series of points where things shifted.

1960s–1970s: Entering the Race

Before women were officially allowed in marathons, some ran them anyway.

Bobbi Gibb’s 1966 Boston Marathon belongs at the start of that story. After being denied entry because women were not considered capable of running the distance, Gibb hid near the start line and ran the race as a bandit once it began. She finished in 3:21:40, ahead of a significant portion of the field, becoming the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon.

Kathrine Switzer’s 1967 Boston Marathon is the more widely recognized public turning point. She entered with an official bib under the name K. V. Switzer and was confronted by a race official who attempted to remove her mid-race. She continued and finished.

Gibb and Switzer represent two parts of the same shift: one showed the world it could be done, the other made it impossible to ignore.

Throughout the 1960s, women in multiple countries began entering “men’s” races – often unofficially. Their times were later recognized, but at the time, they were operating outside the rules.

By 1972, the Boston Marathon officially opened to women. 

1980s: Proving the Distance

By 1980 The American College of Sports Medicine officially stated that: 

“There exists no conclusive scientific or medical evidence that long-distance running is contraindicated for the healthy, trained female athlete. The ACSM recommends that females be allowed to compete at the national and international level in the same distances in which their male counterparts compete.” (A Brief History of Women’s Running by Custom Performance NYC)

Shortly thereafter, in 1982, the NCAA held its first women’s track and field championships. More than six decades after the inaugural men’s championship in 1921. This gap reflects how long women’s athletics operated outside the NCAA system, largely under organizations like the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. The NCAA’s eventual sponsorship of women’s championships marked a major structural shift, bringing increased visibility, funding, and institutional support to women’s track and field and signaling a broader move toward equity in collegiate athletics.

Two years later, the women’s marathon made its debut in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. This addition marked a different kind of shift.

Joan Benoit Samuelson won that first race decisively, leading early and maintaining control throughout. The significance of that performance wasn’t just that it happened – it was how it happened.

There was no ambiguity.

The event demonstrated that women could compete at the highest level in endurance running, under pressure, on a global stage. It moved the conversation from “should women be included?” to “how does the competition evolve from here?”

1990s–2000s: Global Expansion

Tegla Loroupe’s career represents another phase: the globalization of women’s distance running.

As the first African woman to win the New York City Marathon, she helped establish what is now a dominant presence of East African women in distance events. Her success contributed to a broader shift in where elite performance in the sport was coming from.

At the same time, her impact extended beyond competition. Through the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation, which she founded in 2003, she has used running to promote peace within her communities in Kenya and to create athletic opportunities for young women.

By this point, the sport was no longer just expanding access. It was expanding influence.

2010s–Present: Structural Change

Most recent changes in women’s running have been more about the conditions within it.

Allyson Felix’s advocacy around maternity protections is one of the clearest examples. In 2019, she publicly addressed how sponsorship contracts handled pregnancy, highlighting the lack of financial and professional security for female athletes during that period. The response was tangible: several major sponsors updated their policies to include protections for pregnant athletes (read more 1, 2)

That same year, Mary Cain brought attention to a different set of issues within the sport. In a video op-ed, she described her experience training under the Nike Oregon Project, alleging that she was subjected to a system that prioritized performance over health, including pressure to reach an unsafe weight. Over time, she developed disordered eating, lost her menstrual cycle for three years, and suffered multiple bone fractures.

What made Cain’s account significant was not just the specifics, but what it suggested more broadly – that these issues were not isolated, but part of a larger culture in elite running. She described it as “a system designed by and for men,” pointing to the lack of female representation in coaching, medical, and leadership roles.

Together, these moments shifted attention towards the structure of the sport: how athletes are supported, protected and represented. 

The shift is still ongoing. 

Current advocacy in women’s running has focused on issues like standardized maternity protections across brands, equal prize money and race opportunities, athlete safety and oversight, particularly in coaching environments, and stronger support systems for professional athletes.

Organizations like The Voice in Sport Foundation are part of that current phase, focusing on mentorship, research, and advocacy specifically for women in sport.

At the same time, individual athletes continue to push these efforts forward. Alysia Montaño was one of the earliest athletes to bring attention to the treatment of pregnancy in sport and now leads For All Mothers+, focused on eliminating the “motherhood penalty.”

British ultra runner, Sophie Power, through SheRACES , has pushed for more consistent standards across races – particularly around equal opportunities, representation, and accommodations for pregnancy and postpartum athletes.

Stephanie Case, through Free to Run, has focused on access; creating opportunities for women to safely participate in sport in regions where that is limited.

At the same time, performance continues to shape perception. Athletes like Faith Kipyegon are redefining what is considered possible in women’s running. In June of 2025, she set a new world record in the mile of 4:06.42, continuing a pattern where performance itself drives change.

Where That Leaves the Sport

Women’s running didn’t arrive in its current form fully built. It developed in response to pressure, applied at different points, in different ways.

Women’s History Month is a reminder of that. Not only in a symbolic sense, but in a practical one.

The structure of the sport reflects the people who pushed it forward.

And it’s still being shaped.