Forty years ago, at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, American distance runner Joan Benoit Samuelson became the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the marathon, posting a blazing time of 2:24:52. It was an astonishing feat — but not because it proved that women could complete 26.2 miles at pace (in the first modern Olympic Games, Greek woman Stamata Revithi ran the men’s only marathon course the day after the race). It proved women could run the mileage on a competitive world stage in a remarkably fast time, for anyone. After all, the men’s debut marathon time in the 1896 Olympics in Greece was 2:58:50, no one broke 2:30:00 until 1936, and the men’s race in the first year women were allowed to officially participate (when Joan Benoit Samuelson captured gold) was less than 15 minutes faster.
