Katherine Switzer

In the 1960s only men ran marathons — until the 1967 Boston Marathon when a participant called K. Switzer entered. A race official realized a woman was running in the race, and the black and white photos of him trying to remove her from the course have since become famous.

That was the start of the women’s running movement. Katherine went on to run 35 marathons, to organize running events on behalf of Avon for women all over the world, and to lobby for the women’s marathon to be included in the Olympic Games. 

Today she lives in Wellington with her husband, Roger Robinson who ran for New Zealand.

At 62 she’s still running, writing, speaking and commentating at the Olympics and major marathon events. She jokingly says she runs an hour most days and participates in half marathons “for vanity and sanity!”

“Seriously, I do it to stay in shape, because I love the feeling of running, because it is my very best creative time, because I still can, and because I also like to run races in neat places and see the world.”