Research paper about women's participation in long distance running.

Re: switzer,

She won the 74 NYC marathon, and had a personal best of something like 2:50, which was pretty good back then. She also did A LOT with the avon womens running stuff. I'd put her in as ground breaking. That said, don't listen to her at an event, as she is a bit PR self happy as Ray indicates. Anyway, put her in despite that.

Re: Decker

I think you have to include her anyways. A little 90lb girl going off to confront the ussr during the cold war and all that. She certainly wasn't drugging as a teen? Besides, t was only made a banned substance in the early 80s, even if she was doping as a 16 year old. I'm skeptical of her iaaf ban, but am not going argue that here (I'm not super pro decker slaney, but the science is a bit sketchy behind a conviction in her position). However, it might be interesting for the OP to explore how being a pioneering women's runner could make one fall prey to doping temptations at the end or her career. I don't know how you can exclude her in the paper, but by all means include the doping stuff. Its very interesting now.

some players of the 1970s-80s

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2227593&page=0

better now

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2227593&page=0

oops

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=2227672&thread=2227593

wineturtle wrote:

oops

http:??

Done

asdfgdg wrote:

does anyone have any insight into the first womens 800m race where the women collapsed at the end and as a result women were not allowed to run longer then 800m for a long time. One of the cited reasons for this is that doctors of the time thought there uterus would fall out. I cant seem to track down a reliable source for this and i would appreciate being pointed in the right direction.

Some info here.

Agree

Good post

Why don't you call them by their last names?

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm wrote:

Why don't you call them by their last names?

Because other than Charlotte LETTIS, they've already been mentioned or everyone knows the last name. If someone mentions Joanie or Sir Roger, I would hope they know who they're talking about. If not, look 'em up.

Find the book Run with the Champions by Marc Bloom. It has the top 25 American Distance Women of all time (at the time of publishing). It has some great information about the two women you mentioned and much more. For each women it has information about how they started running and even workouts that they did along with pr's in each respective event. Hope that helps and good luck.

Great resource:

http://www.aafla.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/1997/oreXXVI15/oreXXVI15u.pdf

Yo Mary Decker, Doris Brown Heritage, Patti SuePlumer, Patti Catalano (Dillon), Deena Kastor, Shalane Flanagan.... I'm really happy for you all, I'll let you finish... but Jordan Hasay is one of the greatest distance runners of all time!

OF ALL TIME!

Susan Sirma, first Kenyan woman to medal at WCs (3k bronze at Tokyo 1991). Alongside the likes of Sally Barsosio and Tegla Loroupe she broke ground for Kenyan women at an international level.

Before you do anything else, as mentioned before, Read the "Silence of Great Distance". It's a beautiful book.

yes was it Tegla Louroupe or Lornah Kiplaget who started a running camp for women in Kenya with her own prize money? Also there was a woman who ran the Boston Marathon before Switzer but she did not have an official number. I would also look at how recent many Olympic events have been added for women in Track & Field- i.e. women's Steeple chase in 2008 and Women's pole vault in 2000(?) I believe Switzer was involved in many of the committees that got the Marathon sanctioned as an Olympic event for women but who was behind the Steeple and pole vault?

asdfgdg wrote:

Hey, like the title says i am writing a reasearch paper on ground breakers in womens long distance running. For the moment i am only focusing on Katherine Switzer and Joan Benoit Samuelson. The research paper is supposed to fall under the broad catagory of gender disparity in sport and how it wasa overcome.

I was wondering if anyone on letsrun would give me some insight on these two women i might not get from a library database, or at least point me in the right direction.

also if anyone has any insight into other noteworthy groundbreakers in womens long distance running i would appreciate the input.

You are going in with the false presupposition that there was ever a "gender disparity" in distance running (and sports) that it was (or needed to be) "overcome" like it was the Negro League. Why is there such a "gender disparity" in gymnastics, ballet, double dutch, etc.? By your assumptions, males must be suffering from some type of oppression keeping them out of these sports. It couldn't be that males and females have different hobbies, thinking patterns, life goals, etc.

Thanks everyone for the info, this will really help.

You are going in with the false presupposition that there was ever a "gender disparity" in distance running (and sports) that it was (or needed to be) "overcome" like it was the Negro League. Why is there such a "gender disparity" in gymnastics, ballet, double dutch, etc.? By your assumptions, males must be suffering from some type of oppression keeping them out of these sports. It couldn't be that males and females have different hobbies, thinking patterns, life goals, etc.[/quote]

my assignment was the broad topic of gender disparity in sports and i chose a sport i enjoy. That said when i use the word gender disparity i mean in the early days when women were expressly forbidden from participating officially in these events at, at the local or olympic level.

As far as i know men are not forbidden from participating in gymnastics, ballet or double dutch at any level...

This is a link to an article I wrote on a related topic. You can use my sources as a start for your research.