Kathrine Switzer

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MAKERS Profile

First Woman to Enter the Boston Marathon

Kathrine Switzer on the prejudices women athletes faced, her historic Boston Marathon run, and the doors it opened for other women athletes.

More From Kathrine

spacer First Woman to Enter the Boston Marathon spacer “A pink running skirt” spacer A Wife spacer A Different Kind of Legacy spacer Misconceptions in Brazil spacer The Olympics & the Vote spacer Open-Minded Men spacer Officially Barred spacer Sparring with the Press spacer His Way of Apologizing spacer Mid-Marathon Epiphany spacer Worrying the Milkman spacer Surprising Femininity spacer A Mile A Day
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Biography

  • Groundbreakers

Charity of Choice: Women's Sports Foundation

First Paying Job: Public relations at Bristol Mayers

Headline News: Before her barrier-busting run in Boston, she first sparked national headlines by running the mile in a men's track meet in college

A Mile a Day: She says, learning to run a mile a day is "the thing that changed my life...It translated into everything else I did. I said, 'Well, if I can run a mile a day, I can try out for the poetry club...It gave me a lot of confidence, courage, and belief in myself.'"

Kathrine Switzer was in the habit of signing her college papers “K.V. Switzer” and did so when she registered for the all-male Boston Marathon in 1967. She wasn’t the first woman to run the race, but her presence as an official entrant made her a visible and potent threat to the sports world’s status quo. The simple gesture exploded when an official attacked Switzer on the course, grabbing for her race numbers and screaming and cursing at her before being body blocked by her boyfriend.
 
The incident was broadcasted worldwide and put a shocking face on the hostility to women’s full participation in athletics. Time-Life listed it among its “100 Photographs that Changed the World.” Switzer was radicalized by the incident. Her 38 subsequent marathons (she’s still running them) include a win in New York in 1974. She led the successful drive to get the women’s race into the Olympic Games, has won an Emmy for her TV commentary, and is the author of three books, including her memoir, Marathon Woman. Switzer’s ongoing campaign to help women around the globe empower themselves through the simple act of running made her a 2011 Inductee into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. 

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