Running pioneer KATHRINE SWITZER was the first woman to complete a marathon, despite being told women weren’t capable of competing. Now, 50 years later, she’s still a force of empowerment.
When Kathrine Switzer set out to run her first marathon she didn’t mean to start a revolution, she simply wanted to prove the boys wrong.
Switzer was a 20-year-old journalism student in 1967 and the first woman to join her university track and field running team. During training, her coach would entertain her with tales of running the Boston Marathon—one of the world’s most famous and prestigious long-distance races in the world. Back then, women were considered physically incapable of running 42 kilometres and were therefore not eligible to enter the marathon. Switzer was determined to change that.
It was snowing in April 1967 when Switzer lined up with her coach and then-boyfriend to start the Boston Marathon. While women were technically not allowed to enter, she had entered under her initials KV Switzer, but did not try to hide the fact that she was a woman: she wore lipstick and earrings. The marathon began well, but about five kilometres in, race manager Jock Semple famously leapt off a media bus monitoring the runners and lunged at Switzer, trying to rip the bib number 261 off her chest, and push her off the course. The images of Semple attacking the lone woman on the course went global, exposing the ugly sexism in sport and turning Switzer into an equality icon for female athletes.
Switzer later recalled the incident in her memoir, Marathon Woman: “A big man, a huge man with bared teeth, was set to pounce, and before I could react he grabbed my shoulder and flung me back, screaming: ‘Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers!’”
この記事は VOGUE India の June 2018 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は VOGUE India の June 2018 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Current affairs
Elif Shafak’s work abounds with references, memories and a deep love of Istanbul. She talks to AANCHAL MALHOTRA about the significance of home and those who shape our recollections of the past
A drop of nostalgia
A whiff of Chanel N°5 L'Eau acts as a memory portal for TARINI SOOD, reminding her of the constant tussle between who we are and who we hope to become
Wild thing's
Zebras hold emerald-cut diamonds, panthers morph into ring-bracelets that move and a turtle escapes to become a brooch -Cartier's high jewellery collection Nature Sauvage is a playground of the animal kingdom.
Preity please
Two surprise red-carpet appearances and a movie announcement have everyone obsessing over Preity Zinta. The star behind the aughties’ biggest hits talks film wardrobe favourites, social media and keeping it real.
Honeymoon travels
Destination locked, visas acquired, bookings madewhat could stand between a newly-wed couple and pure, unadulterated conjugal bliss in some distant, romantic land? A lot, finds JYOTI KUMARI. Styled by LONGHCHENTI HANSO LONGCHAR
La La Land
They complete each other’s sentences, make music together and get lost on the streets of Paris—this is the love story of Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth.
A SHORE THING
Annalea Barreto and Mavrick Cardoz eschewed the big fat Goan wedding for a DIY, intimate, seaside affair that was true to their individual selves.
7 pheras around the buffet
Celebrating the only real love affair each wedding season: me and a feast.
Saving AI do
From getting ChatGPT to plan your wedding itinerary to designing your moodboard on Midjourneytech is officially third-wheeling the big fat Indian wedding
Love bomb me, please
Between breadcrumbing, cushioning and situationships, the language of romance seems to be lost in translation. SAACHI GUPTA asks, where has the passion gone?