Marathon moments The first ever women’s Olympic Marathon threw up two images which encapsulated both the agony and the ecstasy of the Marathon – in reverse order. First came the moment when Joan Benoit entered the stadium with 500m left to run. In any stadium finish to a championship marathon it’s the moment when the cheer goes up from the crowd in acclamation of the about-to-be winner that is probably the most memorable moment in any marathon champion’s career. Sometimes the victory is still in doubt but that was not the case here. Benoit led by over 400m and had time to savour the moment as she completed a lap of the Coliseum track.
Ecstasy and agony
She half-raised her left hand in acknowledgement of the roar from the crowd but, almost hiding under the sizeable white cap she had worn from the start of the race, pressed on with her businesslike stride. She passed by the finish line out in lane five, breaking for the kerb after entering the bend and only then removed her cap and waved it at the crowd along the back straight. She hit the home straight over a full lap ahead of second-placed Grete Waitz and crossed the finish line to become the inaugural winner of the women’s Olympic Marathon. Her time remained the Olympic record for 16 years. The 50 runners in the field, from 28 countries, had started their journey at the Santa Monica College track. A sunny day, with the temperature close to 30ºC, made for a cautious start. After six minutes of running most of the field had already exceeded the furthest distance women had ever previously run in an Olympic Games. The 1500m had only been included in the women’s Olympic programme since 1972.
The inaugural women’s Olympic Marathon, Los Angeles, USA. 5 August 1984 Joan Benoit had another reason for caution. Five months previously she had sustained a knee injury in her build-up to the US Olympic Trials selection race. Benoit was a clear favourite, having one year earlier set a course record in the Boston Marathon of 2:22:43. This was a ‘world best’ – two minutes faster than the time run by Grete Waitz in the London Marathon just one day earlier – but not a world record as the courses were not comparable. It remained the course record in Boston until 1994. US Olympic selections were made by sticking rigidly to a ‘first three past the post’ rule in the trial. This meant that Benoit had to run the trial only 17 days after having arthroscopic surgery. She recovered remarkably quickly, winning the trial in a modest time, but the Olympics were due three months later which allowed little time for recuperation. Distance Running | 2021 Edition 2
35
