Starting Line 1928

In 1979, standout 800-meter runner Karen Troianello (Blair) joined a group of women student-athletes and coaches in a lawsuit against Washington State University (WSU), suing over inadequate funding and support for women's athletics under Washington's Equal Rights Amendment. By the luck of the alphabet, she ended up being named the plaintiff. Blair vs. Washington State University went to the state...

Michele Cuke's first racing success came at age ten when she won a 600-meter race sponsored by her church. She went on to become one of California's top high school 800-meter and cross-country runners, then competed collegiately at UCLA. She ran all four years, culminating in setting the 10,000-meter school record and becoming the 1983 NCAA 1500-meter champion. Ultimately, Cuke completed eleven ma...

1972 was a banner year for American women in athletics, and Patricia Barrett, a high schooler from New Jersey, was at the center of many of the milestones. In January that year, she won her first marathon, the inaugural Jersey Shore Marathon. Then, she was one of the eight women who ran the Boston Marathon that year, the first year female runners could officially enter and receive numbers. That fa...

Shawanna White is a semi-professional runner and physical education teacher in Columbia, South Carolina. Nearly every weekend, you can find her on the starting line, racing distances from the mile to the marathon. She's run more marathons under three hours than any other American-born Black female runner—her current total is 16—and her personal best of 2:45:19 places her eighth on the list of fast...

When 16-year-old Billee Pat Connolly stepped up to the start line of the 800-meter  race at the 1960 U.S. women's Olympic Track and Field Trials, she had no idea she  would become a part of history in what has now become known as "The Abilene  800," the event that opened the door for women to run longer distances. Connolly went on to become a three-time Olympian, a renowned track and field coach,...

Julie A. Brown grew up in Billings, Montana, as one of five, and began her running career when she followed in her sister's footsteps and joined the high school cross-country team. Before long, she was paving her own path. Eventually, she made many US national teams during and after college. She excelled in an impressive range of events—from the 4x400 to the marathon to cross country. Notably, she...

Michele Tiff-Hill grew up in Cleveland,  into a very athletic family, but  didn't get into running herself until her late 20s. Instead, she focused on her music career in high school, college, and beyond. She took up running in an effort to simply be more active with all the hours she spent sitting at the piano bench every day. Though she initially did her running in secret, she quickly grew more...

At the 2004 Olympic Trials, Ann Gaffigan won the 3,000-meter steeplechase and set an American record. But the women's steeplechase wasn't yet an Olympic event, so it was only an exhibition event at the trials, and Gaffigan's win didn't earn her a ticket to the Olympics.  It was the best day of her life, Gaffigan says, and she was proud of what she'd accomplished—but competing at the Olympics had b...

While attending Tennessee State University, Mims became the first African-American woman to compete in the 800 meters and the first American to win Olympic gold at the 1968 Games in Mexico City. From 1967 to 1980, she  won 10 national indoor and outdoor titles and set several American records. Her fastest 800-meter time, 1:57.9 in 1976, was a long-standing American record in the event.  Today, bei...

Between 1972 and 1976, Robin Campbell Bennett competed in events across the United States, winning and medaling at many of them. In 1974, she set the American Record in both the 600 meter and 1000 meter events. She also competed at the USA vs China Friendship Competition in Shanghai, China in 1975. Then, in 1976 Robin participated as an Olympic Trials Qualifier in the 400-, 800-, and 1500-meter ev...

Charlotte Lettis Richardson begin running in 1971 and competed at the national and international level in distances from the 800 meters to 30K. She started a women's running club in 1972, won the 1975 L'eggs Mini Marathon, and made the Olympic Trials in the 1500 meters in 1976. She's also a storyteller who wrote and directed the 2005 documentary " Run Like a Girl ." Richardson currently lives in S...

Jacqueline Hansen is a two-time world record holder in the marathon; she was the first woman to break the sub-2:40 mark with her 2:38.19 world record time.  She is the 1973 Boston Marathon winner, a national collegiate champion in the mile, and a Masters World Champion in the 1500m and 5,000m distances.  As President of the International Runners Committee, she spearheaded a movement to usher the w...

"I look back now and I don't think of myself as a trailblazer. We were setting the standard for other women and encouraging them." Freddi Carlip started casually running in 1978 as an outlet from her daily life as a stay-at-home mom to two small children. Little did she know that the healthy activity would soon become her life's work. In addition to serving as a founding member of the Starting Lin...

"I wasn't known for anything else but my running. That's what I kind of latched onto. I didn't have many extras, like summer camps or lots of material goods, but I did have my running and my legs and a TV set and goals." Alisa Harvey's impressive running career spans decades and distances. The first time she qualified for the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials was in 1988, in the 1500 meters, whe...

"They [the men] didn't like it when we beat them, but they were very accepting and very encouraging. It was always the officials that were the problem, you know, and it's just two different classes of people. And they get their kicks from enforcing the rules. We got our kicks from being in shape." Judy Shapiro-Ikenberry ran in her first track meet at age 12, and her first Olympic Trials, in the 80...

"All I can do you know that let people know that Black folks can run—we have been running. I've had calls, people asking me, Marilyn, how can we get more Black distance runners in high school? If you never see any black distance runners, it's hard ... we still have to keep pushing, and you need people that know how to coach distance." Marilyn Bevans has no regrets. She did what she loved to do and...

"I was doing it for my own survival, because I was a stay-at-home mom. And I felt that I needed to do something for me, because I felt like my brain was dying. I needed something for me. It just turned out that way, I just didn't know. I was pleased when people would come out and maybe I encouraged somebody else to do that." Bjorg Austrheim-Smith, multiple Western States winner, will tell you upfr...

The first modern Olympics were held in 1896. Women runners, though? They weren't called to the starting line until 1928. After made-up reports of women collapsing after the 800 meters, track and field's governing body eliminated the event after just one try—a change that lasted until 1960.  It wasn't the first, and certainly not the last time the story of women's running was twisted, and athletes'...