“If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon”
- Katherine Switzer
By all means, the race to success is different for women. This can easily be seen played out on the racing track. There, although the length of the track, the formalities, the bib number; all seem the same, there are tons of challenges that aren’t visual to a casual eye.
However, marathon- running legend, Mrs. Katherine Switzer, has certainly overcome these barriers and has helped women take a leap forward in the world of marathons.
It’s a common fact, marathons test perseverance and strength. But for girls, it's harder. They are considered to be too fragile to take up the task. According to society, running makes girls too ‘masculine’, so they stay away from it. Even Katherine’s university coach suggested that women were too frail to undertake the distance. But she proved everyone wrong by running 31 miles in training.
Katherine Switzer was the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon, the world’s longest with a distance of 26 miles, and defeated presumptions about the limits of female strength and courage. She unconsciously used her pen name, KW Switzer, to enter the race and broke the unwritten protocol against women entering. Her show of courage was clapped upon by her coach, her parents, and many other men at the race. She stood up for herself, wearing lipstick despite the fact that she could be disqualified if anyone saw that she was a girl. After training seriously for so long, she fearlessly ran through the freezing cold and rain and dealt with the increasingly aggressive questions aimed at her by the press. At the end of the race, her feet were soaked in blood, but she hadn’t lost her vigor.
But it wasn’t her race to the finish that acted as a catalyst for change. In fact, an infuriated officer forcibly tried to remove her from the marathon. This incident was circulated around the world, and Mrs. Katherine realized that she had a mission to become a better athlete and create more opportunities for women in racing. She went on to run over 38 marathons and led the campaign to get women's official status in long-distance running.
Society needs women like Mrs. Katherine to change their views. Over the years, she has created a circuit of women’s only races spanning 27 countries and including over a million participants. She has played a huge role in debunking myths about running’s negative effects on women’s health. Thanks to her campaigning, the women’s marathon was finally introduced into the Olympics in 1984.
Katherine Switzer paved her way on a male-dominated sport. She proved to the world that a woman can do anything a man can do if she sets her mind on it. Her journey wasn’t easy, but it certainly speaks of courage, learning, and endurance. She truly is an emblem of inspiration.
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