Swift as Athena
This story is all over Facebook and I can’t find an original author so I’ll just credit it to Facebook.
When she applied to run in the Boston Marathon in 1966 they rejected her, saying: “Women are not physiologically able to run a marathon, and we can’t take the liability.”
Then exactly 50 years ago today, on the day of the marathon, Bobbi Gibb hid in the bushes and waited for the race to begin. When about half of the runners had gone past she jumped in.
She wore her brother’s Bermuda shorts, a pair of boy’s sneakers, a bathing suit, and a sweatshirt. As she took off into the swarm of runners, Gibb started to feel overheated, but she didn’t remove her hoodie. “I knew if they saw me, they were going to try to stop me,” she said. “I even thought I might be arrested.”
It didn’t take long for male runners in Gibb’s vicinity to realize that she was not another man. Gibb expected them to shoulder her off the road, or call out to the police. Instead, the other runners told her that if anyone tried to interfere with her race, they would put a stop to it. Finally feeling secure and assured, Gibb took off her sweatshirt.
As soon as it became clear that there was a woman running in the marathon, the crowd erupted—not with anger or righteousness, but with pure joy, she recalled. Men cheered. Women cried.
By the time she reached Wellesley College, the news of her run had spread, and the female students were waiting for her, jumping and screaming. The governor of Massachusetts met her at the finish line and shook her hand. The first woman to ever run the marathon had finished in the top third.
They may have gotten the info from this Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobbi_Gibb
Now that’s real sportsmanship and solidarity, and a true pioneer. Cheating surfer dude and all the other cheating men forcing themselves into women’s sport, whose names should all be erased from the record books, and then forgotten, can’t hold a candle to Gibb.
Inspirational. Thanks for posting this.
Isn’t it? I love it. You’re welcome.
But how could the crowd possibly know? Was it her pronoun badge? The pink dress? Running a whole marathon with a head-tilt must be pretty taxing…
This was a great way to start my morning, thank you for putting it up!
Um. I remember a news photograph of several male runners trying to pull her off the road. I may be conflating this with another race near the same time, but I don’t think it all went so nicely.
There was a different marathon in which an official forcibly stopped the woman.
Kathrine Switzer. “Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon despite being attacked by the race director who tried to physically pull her out of the race because she was a woman. She remembers the famous moment, explains why it is still relevant and talks about women’s safety in 2021.”
Waaay back in 2014:
https://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2014/04/get-the-hell-out-of-my-race/
Also, correction, the official tried to stop her, but failed, and she completed the race. I think I thought he’d succeeded.
Also the men who had no problem with her being in the race. And the crowd that cheered her on. That sort of makes me think of the audience that didn’t cheer “Lia’s” ‘victory’.
Thanks, Ophelia, that’s a great story. When I started reading, I thought it was going to be the Kathrine Switzer story, so it was a pleasant surprise.