Upon earning her degree she won the Boston Marathon in her first ever race, and went on to win again in 1983 with a course record 2:22:43. Eventually, she signed a scholarship to run at North Carolina State University, where she helped the Wolfpack to an ACC CrossCountry Championship in 1978 while also earning consecutive All-American honors in 19. Benoit began her athletic career as a skier and took up long-distance running to recover from a leg injury she suffered while slaloming. As a result, she became the first female to win gold in the Olympic marathon. Miles to Go.Joan Benoit represented the United States at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games and won gold in the inaugural marathon competition. Joan has run over 160,000 miles in her life…and counting. This is the story of Joan Benoit Samuelson’s incredible journey to the Olympics and of the other women who paved the way and competed against her, whose passion for running also became a race for equality-and change-that continues today. Before that, they were hardly even allowed on the track. And before that, women in the US were prohibited from competing in runs of more than a few miles. In fact, US marathons had been open to women for only a decade. But the Olympics were a last barrier for female distance runners, making the first women’s marathon at the Games a major milestone. For much of the 20th century, America’s cinder tracks and open roads became unlikely battlegrounds for a handful of pioneering women runners who broke the gender barrier in races, showing that women can be athletes too, and helped to advance women’s civil rights. The history of women’s distance running is a largely untold story of triumph over discrimination. But on August 5th, there were a lot of firsts. No runner had ever attacked so early and won an Olympic marathon. When Joan Benoit Samuelson broke away from the lead pack at mile 3, it was a shocker. Until this day, women had never been allowed to run even a mile at the Games, much less a marathon. On August 5, 1984, millions of people around the world watched the first ever women’s Olympic marathon live on ABC.

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