Kathrine Switzer

A Mighty Girl 2017 Highlight: When Kathrine Switzer first ran the Boston Marathon in 1967, a race official tried to physically remove her from the route after he discovered that she was female. This year -- 50 years later -- the now 70-year-old Switzer successfully completed the marathon once again -- this time running it in 4 hours, 44 minutes at the head of a team of over 100 women! Switzer was a 20-year-old college student at Syracuse University in 1967 when she registered for the race using her initials, K.V. Switzer. Not realizing that she was a woman, who were barred from participating in the Boston Marathon for over 70 years, race officials issued her an entry number.

During the race, marathon official Jock Semple ran up to her yelling "Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers!" When he grabbed Switzer and attempted to rip off her race number, other runners, including Switzer’s coach Arnie Briggs and her boyfriend Tom Miller, blocked Semple and she was able to complete the marathon. Dramatic photographs of the incident and the story of Switzer’s participation in the marathon made global headlines. Switzer's record-setting run as the Boston Marathon’s first registered female runner came one year after the historic run of Bobbi Gibb, who disguised herself and snuck in to run the marathon in 1966.

After the marathon, Switzer became deeply engaged in efforts to increase girls’ and women’s access to sports and she and other women runners finally convinced the Boston Athletic Association to drop their discriminatory policies and allow women to participate in 1972. Today, nearly half of Boston Marathon entrants are female. Switzer also helped lead the drive for the inclusion of a women’s marathon in the Olympic Games -- a victory which was achieved at long last with the first women's marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Reflecting on the tremendous progress in women's running over the past five decades -- women now participate in more running events than men in the U.S., with women making up 57% of finishers in U.S. races last year -- Switzer says, “If young women today take for granted the fact that they can compete like men in the sport of running, that’s fantastic. That’s what we wanted when we began working for acceptance."

For an excellent book about Kathrine Switzer's inspiring story, we highly recommend her autobiography, "Marathon Woman: Running the Race to Revolutionize Women's Sports," which you can find at http://amzn.to/2DLYPNR

For a fascinating book about 22 pioneering women runners, including Switzer, check out “First Ladies of Running: 22 Inspiring Profiles of the Rebels, Rule Breakers, and Visionaries Who Changed the Sport Forever,” at http://amzn.to/1Vbcljj

For a fun doll & book set to spark young girls' interest in running, check out the "Runner Girl Ella Set" for ages 3 to 8 at https://www.amightygirl.com/ella-runner-girl

For several Mighty Girl stories that celebrate the joy of running, we recommend "The Quickest Kid in Clarksville" for ages 4 to 8 (https://www.amightygirl.com/the-quickest-kid-in-clarksville) and “The Running Dream” for ages 12 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/the-running-dream).

To introduce children and teens to trailblazing women role models in all fields from sports to science to the arts, visit A Mighty Girl's "Role Model" book section at http://amgrl.co/1I0x0ld

And, for a fantastic t-shirt that speaks to the fact that strength has nothing to do with gender, check out the “I'm not strong for a girl. I'm just strong.” t-shirt for both kids and adults at https://www.amightygirl.com/strong-t-shirt