Kathrine Switzer

Nineteen-year-old Kathrine Switzer opened the door for female athletes when she signed her initials “K. V. Switzer” on her entry to the 1967 Boston Marathon.

Switzer, then a student at Syracuse University, had signed up for the 70th edition of the traditionally all-male race, using her initials to avoid revealing herself as a woman, according to an excerpt from her memoir “Marathon Woman.”

Switzer joined hundreds of men in starting the marathon, most of whom she said made her feel “very welcome.”

But at about the fourth mile, the race manager, Jock Semple, appeared and chased Switzer, attempting to remove her number bibs and shouting, “Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers!”

She took it as inspiration to get across the finish line.

“I knew if I quit, nobody would ever believe that women had the capability to run 26-plus miles,” she said in her memoir. “If I quit, everybody would say it was a publicity stunt. If I quit, it would set women’s sports back, way back, instead of forward.”

Switzer became the first woman to officially enter and finish the Boston Marathon, which began allowing women to compete five years after her race.

Switzer has participated in 39 marathons, including a win in the 1974 New York City Marathon. At her peak, she ranked sixth in the world and third in the U.S. for her time in the 1975 Boston Marathon. 

— Justine Coleman

photo: Getty Images