Celia Downes: 50 years on, women keep taking huge steps forward

The Boston Marathon last week marked two important occasions.

It was the first to take place on its usual Monday, Patriots Day, in April since the coronavirus pandemic began. Last year the marathon was held in October, a rescheduling that lumped it with a number of other elite races.

It also was a celebration of 50 years of a formal women’s field. Indeed, one of the world’s premier 26.2-mile races restricted access to female runners well into the 20th century.

It’s incredible to me that such an anniversary exists at all, especially considering the reason why it took more than 70 years for the event to include women.

The Boston Athletic Association held its first marathon in 1897, inspired by the Summer Olympics the year before. Women weren’t allowed to enter because people believed they were “physiologically incapable” of running 26.2 miles, according to the rejection letter sent in 1966 to a woman who would ignore the denial and make it to the starting line anyway.

Most of us recognize that’s a ridiculous excuse, but even now there are people who don’t think women should undertake such “extreme” endeavors. Anyone who knows someone who has given birth — that would be all of us — knows that the notion of “weaker sex” is patently false.

Thankfully, people refused to listen to the BAA’s reasoning.

Roberta “Bobbi” Gibb was the woman who received that BAA rejection letter in 1966. The avid runner hid near the starting line and completed the course in 3:21:40, faster than many of the men.

But it still took several more years for the association to formally open the marathon to women.

1972 saw the Boston Marathon’s first women’s field that included eight runners. Even when their presence was supposedly officially recognized, the athletes faced backlash ranging from verbal abuse to physical violence.

The tiny inaugural group has since grown to comprise about 40% of all participants; this year that meant more than 12,000 women who counted among their ranks Olympic champions, winners of other elite marathons and additional icons of racing.

In fitting fashion for an anniversary, last week’s race featured a mad dash to the end and the potential for a photo finish. After trading the lead in the final moments, Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya out-kicked Ethiopia’s Ababel Yeshaneh to win the marathon in 2:21:01, seconds ahead of Yeshaneh.

Jepchirchir has dominated the marathon world recently, claiming gold in the Tokyo Olympics and then winning the New York City Marathon late last year. At just 28 years old, she’s poised to continue to shine.

Young runners weren’t the only ones making headlines, either. The elite women’s field included a Japanese athlete, Mariko Yugeta, who in 2019 became the first woman over 60 to run a sub-3:00 marathon. While she missed that goal slightly in Boston, running 3:06:27, she remains an inspiration to anyone who, in addition to gender, refuses to see age as a barrier.

Marking the marathon’s 50th anniversary has made me grateful to live in a time when women are far less restricted, at least in the U.S., from pursuing their athletic goals — even though this progress has only come recently.

Professional women’s leagues are, like the women’s field at Boston, just a few decades old. Women’s soccer didn’t truly take off until after the passage of Title IX in 1972. I was a basketball- loving grade schooler when the WNBA held its first tipoff in 1996.

Great strides have also been made more recently as women have paved paths into men’s professional sports as coaches, referees and in management roles. Folks are finally realizing that gender shouldn’t be a disqualifying factor when it comes to participation at any level of any sport.

I’m glad my daughter, who is rough-and-tumble and can practically outrun me at 2-1/2 years old, is growing up with a world of opportunity if she chooses to channel her energy into organized sports. The list of inspirational women she can follow grows practically by the day; I know I’m excited to see what the future holds.

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Reach Celia K. Downes at cdownes@staradvertiser.com