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sl8

(16,245 posts)
Sat Jun 22, 2024, 06:57 AM Jun 2024

How women runners debunked myths about the sport and made running their own [View all]

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/06/22/nx-s1-5015728/women-running-myths-debunk-health-sport

How women runners debunked myths about the sport and made running their own

JUNE 22, 20247:00 AM ET
By Maya Silver



Women runners at the start of the 2024 Boston Marathon. Women couldn't officially compete in this race until 1972.
David L. Ryan/Boston Globe/Getty Images


Myths about women in sport date back at least to the dawn of the Olympics 2,800 years ago, when women weren’t allowed to compete. These myths “remain hard to shake,” according to sports journalist Maggie Mertens. For instance, it wasn't until 1972 that women were allowed to run in the Boston Marathon — it was considered too long and grueling for them physiologically.

In her new book, Better Faster Farther: How Running Changed Everything We Know About Women (released June 18), Mertens explores misconceptions about female athletes — and how through running, women have disproved these myths.

Running, says Mertens, “has been used for years and years and years to define women as being lesser than men.” This has caused women to receive less compensation, access, health support and recognition than their male peers in sport.

[...]

Here are eight ways the world has misjudged women runners and how they’ve fought to make the sport their own.

[...]

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