The First Women's Olympic Marathon: Joan Benoit, Los Angeles 1984

01Why the first women's Olympic marathon had to wait until 1984

Amsterdam, 1928: women are finally allowed Olympic track and field, five events including an 800 m. Accounts describe runners collapsing after the race. Sports historian Colleen English (US Sport History) shows, with footage as evidence, that those accounts were false, and that six of the nine finalists had beaten the old world record. No matter: the event disappears from the program, judged too hard for women. After that 800 m, women's races at the Games don't go beyond 200 m until Rome 1960.

Thirty-two years without running farther than half a lap of the track.

02The IOC finally gives in

The 800 m returns in 1960. The marathon, for its part, joins the women's program in 1984. The decision is made in 1981, MarathonGuide's history tells it: the IOC executive board approves it in February, the USSR the only vote against, then the IOC session, held in Baden-Baden in September, confirms its recommendation. Among the arguments, a statement from the American College of Sports Medicine in January 1980: no conclusive scientific or medical evidence that long-distance running is contraindicated for healthy, trained women.

03One knee, 17 days

March 1984: Joan Benoit hurts her knee on a 20-mile run. She has arthroscopic surgery 17 days before the U.S. trials. She wins them anyway.

According to Olympedia, she isn't fully recovered: even qualifying counts as a stroke of luck. In Los Angeles, nobody knows what that knee is worth.

04She leads from the front, and nobody follows

Sunday, August 5, 8 a.m., start in Santa Monica. After about a quarter of an hour, Benoit breaks away. Grete Waitz lets her go; she will later judge the attack too early. By the 30 km mark, Benoit has nearly two minutes in hand.

She enters the Coliseum alone, in front of 70,000 to 77,000 spectators depending on the account. She wins in 2:24:52; Waitz finishes 1 min 26 s back (2:26:18), with Rosa Mota third (2:26:57). It is around 30 °C.

05Gabriela, the last lap

A quarter of an hour to twenty minutes after Benoit's finish, Switzerland's Gabriela Andersen-Schiess enters the stadium in turn. She missed the last aid station, and her legs are cramping. She staggers. Doctors rush over; she waves them off: any contact with them would have meant disqualification. It takes her between five and six minutes to complete the lap of the track.

She crosses the line and collapses into the arms of the medics. She recovers within a few hours, with no after-effects according to Olympedia. She is 37th, in 2:48:42 (2:48:45 according to MarathonGuide). Some observers think she should have been stopped; others remember only her courage. “I knew that if I stopped I wouldn't be able to finish,” she tells Eurosport in 2023.