Have you ever wondered why it's mostly men who dominate big sports events? Current research suggests that it's often times a lack of opportunity. Women often times had to fight to participate in sports. Katherine Switzer, for instance, is supposedly the first woman to run a marathon as an officially registered competitor, although she was registered only using the initials of her first name. Guess the year.
It was in 1967.
A year prior Bobbi Gibb had snuck into the crowd and finished the marathon faster than two thirds of the participating men. 1972 was the year the Boston Marathon opened a women's devision and officially allowed women to participate. In 1996, Bobbi Gibb's efforts were retroactively recognized.
The first time to have women run marathons during the Olympic games was in 1984.
The excuses for excluding women were that their bodies weren't made for longer races or something along the lines.
Fast forward to 2026: Ultramarathons are a thing now and one of them is called Cocodona 250. It takes place in the beginning of May in Arizona's desert. The course is 253 miles long -- that's 407 km -- and 2026 a new course record of 56 hours 9 minutes and 48 seconds was set by Rachel Entrekin. Mind you, she only slept -- or rather napped -- 19 minutes during those two days and 8 hours. Have you ever stayed up that long? I haven't. That's an incredible achievement given Rachel finished the race more than 2.5 hours faster than the previous record of 58:47:18. Kilian North set a new men's record of 57:28:36 the same year.
So we're seeing that not only are women perfectly capable of endurance sports, but they can even be faster than male competitors if they're given the opportunity.
I'm currently reading a book about the inequality of women in rowing and it seams to be the same pattern: Women are not given the opportunity to take part in races, often not even in practicing sports. Women had to found and fund their own clubs and fight for participation in racing. Up until 2015, the women's crews were not allowed to race at the same day as the men at the prestigious Henley regatta.
So next time you see women competing in sports cheer extra for them!
Great post, Linda! You extended yourself and talked about something outside of your usual topics and it was so interesting. Reading this makes me even more furious that after everything it took for women to be able to participate in sports like this one, they then allowed men who identify as women to infiltrate their sports.