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

How about talk how Title IX opened up doors for women to compete on the collegiate level, and gave them incentives (scholarships) to do so?

Title IX was the ultimate ground breaker.

Ummm... ever heard of Jordan Hasay?

No but seriously I think Hasay has been huge for high school running... through the years she ran, many of the girls now had a household name (similar to say, Ritz perhaps?)... she has gained fame all over and is one runner that many, many runners know about (high school).

Son of Dad wrote:

How about talk how Title IX opened up doors for women to compete on the collegiate level, and gave them incentives (scholarships) to do so?

Title IX was the ultimate ground breaker.

I am definitly going to talk about title IX but was hoping to focus more on individual women who "broke barriers"

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.

also anything concering the discrimination women had to overcome to be alowed to participate in long distance running?

thanks letsrun

There is a neat DVD called "Run Like a Girl" that chronicles the history of women's distance running. If I recall correctly, it has some good comments from Doris Herritage, who must be included in any discussion of women's distance running history.

Get the book "Silence of Great Distance." Very good/historical book.

Beth Bonner - one-time world record holder and first woman to break 3 hours in the marathon.

thanks for the book suggestion, ill look into it. As for the DVD i found the website but i dont think i will be able to get a copy without paying for it. The website does seem to be very informative though.

Switzer spells her first name "Kathrine."

You need to know about Roberta Gibb, Nina Kuscsik, and Doris Brown Heritage, at the very least.

Arlene Pieper was the first woman to complete a U.S. marathon race: the 1959 Pikes Peak Marathon. True, given her time (5:22 ascent; 9:16 "round trip"), she must have hiked essentially all of it, both up and down, but the PPM is proud to stand out as the first marathon to explicitly welcome female competitors.

The first 50-100 pages of the book is about Doris Brown Heritage. She was doing 100 miles per week, running twice a day (because that's what the men did), when the furthest they ran was 1500m. Really fascinating book. Shows how women's running evolved from women running because it was liberating, to the pressures of competing internationally (Mary Decker against the drugged Russians/Eastern Europeans) and in college (eating disorders- Stephanie Herbst, depression- Kathy Ormsby).

Maybe take a deeper look at the 1984 Olympic Trials with a 50-60mpw 16-yo high schooler and a 54-yo nun rooming together...

easily!! wrote:

Ummm... ever heard of Jordan Hasay?

No but seriously I think Hasay has been huge for high school running... through the years she ran, many of the girls now had a household name (similar to say, Ritz perhaps?)... she has gained fame all over and is one runner that many, many runners know about (high school).

Dear Youngster,

My generation had Julia Stamps.

Jordan Hasay is good but she is not a groundbreaker in women's sports. She is just your age-group's wet dream.

Signed,

Getting Old

Julia Stamps never made it to the finals of the Olympic Trials by setting a high school record.

I'd add patti catalano (dillon?), who occasionally posts here, and has done a lot of interviews you could likely get a hold of in the past. (lyons) Sorry I'm sure I butchered the spellings of her names. And probably everyone else's.

How about ...

grete waitz

Mary Decker

Nina Kuscsik

Lynn Jennings

I was at Princeton 1975-1979 and dated a woman in the class of '78 who was a member of the track team. She was a husky crew jock and her father, the late Arnie Fraiman, was a masters/veteran marathoner in NYC.

She was a fine athlete but not a fast runner and I remember thinking that it was amazing that she'd managed to score a place on the team. This was the winter of '77-78. She was a feminist, though, and we had many talks about the importance of Title IX.

I suspect you'll get some really interesting results if you explore what was going on in women's intercollegiate athletics during that period. Everything was opening up. The L'eggs Mini-Marathon was happening in NYC, and Grete Waitz was a star. I don't think young women today can really imagine how NOT taken-for-granted all that they're doing today was, back then. Jordan Hassay is dancing on the shoulders of giants.

Lynn Jennings came to Princeton in the fall of '78. I remember the splash she made on campus. (I was rooming with XC guys--Bruce Bond, Paul Suslovic.) It was pretty much exactly the splash that Hassay is making these days--except that was pre-internet, to the national hoopla was infinitely smaller on a day-to-day basis.

Susy Favor too, but she's pretty young too be in that ground breaking agegroup. She'd be the first of the 2nd generation of runners (we have the third now?).

Hasay*

niarun wrote:

I'd add patti catalano (dillon?), who occasionally posts here, and has done a lot of interviews you could likely get a hold of in the past. (lyons) Sorry I'm sure I butchered the spellings of her names. And probably everyone else's.

How about ...

grete waitz

Mary Decker

Nina Kuscsik

Lynn Jennings

mary decker is a convicted drug cheat so she should not count, the other 3 are fine though.

derartu tulu the first east african woman olympic gold medalist (1992 and 2000 10k), for being the pioneer which seems to have started the african women now dominating the 5 and 10k and cross country and half marathon, and i predict in 10-20 years the east african woman will be dominating the marathon.