Today we are introducing new category in our stories and that is running facts. We are tying to bring you folks more interesting facts and stories that are related to running. So lets start with first Olympics marathon for women. First race was held at 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, USA.
Joan Benoit Samuelson (born May 16, 1957) is an American marathon runner who won gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. At the end of the race she was the first-ever women's Olympic marathon champion. She still holds the fastest times for an American woman at the Chicago Marathon and the Olympic Marathon. Her time at the Boston Marathon was the fastest time by an American woman at that race for 28 years. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2000.
Interesting thing is that she injured her knee severely during a 20-mile training run, forcing her to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery just 17 days before the United States Olympic Women's Marathon Trials were scheduled. However, she recovered from the surgery much quicker than expected, and showed up at the trials as the woman to beat. She beat runner-up Julie Brown by 30 seconds, winning in 2:31:04. Three months later, she competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and won the first Olympic Women's Marathon in 2:24:52, several hundred meters ahead of Grete Waitz, Rosa Mota, and Ingrid Kristiansen.
We hope that this article was interesting for you and that we bring piece of history for you.
Source text and image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Benoit