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 werent 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.
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Here are eight ways the world has misjudged women runners and how theyve fought to make the sport their own.
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