Nearly 60 years after Boston Marathon run, Kathrine Switzer still inspires women to run
This Mother's Day, instead of flowers, breakfast in bed or a day at the spa, what if it were possible to give your mom the gift of running?
An all-women's running group co-founded by Kathrine Switzer, who made history as the first woman to officially finish the Boston Marathon in 1967, is helping women break barriers and proving that running is for all women of all ages and abilities.
"Who would ever have imagined that an official attacking me in the Boston Marathon and trying to rip off my bib number, 261, would result in a marvelous global nonprofit that helps women around the world?" Switzer told ABC News, referring to 261 Fearless, the running club she co-founded a decade ago in 2015.
Switzer, now 78, signed up for the 1967 Boston Marathon, which until that point was predominantly run by men, as K.V. Switzer. While women were not officially barred from the course, people did not believe women were capable of running such a distance.
Race officials did not know that Switzer was running until she entered the second mile of the race. That's when a race official ran up behind her and tried to rip off her bib in order to disqualify her. She was able to break free of his grasp, and kept running, finishing the marathon and becoming a symbol of girl power in sports.
Switzer went onto complete 40 marathons in her lifetime of running and continued to fight for all women to have the opportunity to run. She created a women's-only international race circuit, which led to the women's marathon being included in the Olympics for the first time in 1984. She also worked as a television broadcaster, calling big running events including the Boston Marathon and the Olympic races. More recently, she is a returning captain for the Every Woman's Marathon, which bills itself as the only U.S. marathon designed exclusively for women. The second annual race will be held in November in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Whenever women learned of Switzer's Boston Marathon experience, she said it was her race number -- 261 -- that would resonate deeply with them.
"People began emailing me and writing to me and saying, 'That number makes me feel fearless.' 'It makes me fearless in the face of adversity.' 'I'm wearing it on my back in the New York City Marathon tomorrow.' Or they inked it on their arm and they were showing me that. But when they started sending me pictures of their tattoos, that's when I had to take it seriously."
Two decades ago, Edith Zuschmann, a swimmer turned runner in her youth, met Switzer at a race in Vienna, Austria. From there, a friendship -- and later the idea to form a running club called 261 Fearless -- was born.
"I had this idea to create a women's-only running community to help women to feel more comfortable," Zuschmann, the CEO, president and co-founder of 261 Fearless, told ABC News. "And also, what running, or sports in general, brought to me was this feeling of fearlessness, of courage after a run or after exercising, and I wanted to give this also to other women."
261 Fearless has forged its own identity amid a surge of running groups. The global nonprofit organization's mission is to empower women through running and education programs, with a focus on creating a safe and supportive space for women in a non-competitive environment.
Since its founding, the organization has trained over 500 women around the world to become running coaches, according to Switzer and Zuschmann.
"We're finding out one simple thing. If you want to lift a woman up, show her how to run. And the second thing is if you want her to take control of her life, give her an education," Switzer said. "So we combine the running and the empowerment sense and the friendship in the community in a safe place with education so that they get knowledge on things that they can do to take control of their lives. And it's working."
Sonnia Gallo Saavedra, a mom of two daughters, started a 261 Fearless club in Guayaquil, Ecuador. She started running in 2017 and discovered 261 Fearless three years later, when she did a search online and decided to be Kathrine Switzer for Halloween.
"From that day, my life really, really changed a lot," said Gallo Saavedra, who uses the training she received from 261 Fearless' education program to coach other women.
"I'm a woman who has two beautiful girls, so I want them to see a different world, to see a different way. Maybe they don't like to run, but they see their mom [doing] everything that she wants, that she enjoys," she said of the impact of 261 Fearless on her life. "That's the important part. That's what I have gained."
Both Switzer and Zuschmann say the goal of 261 Fearless is to create a nonjudgmental, noncompetitive community encouraging women to be active and growing women to be leaders.
There are currently 61 groups of 261 Fearless runners in 14 countries, including the United States, New Zealand, and countries in South America, Europe and Africa, uniting women of all different ages and abilities.
"Running is the vehicle, or has become the vehicle, for 261 [Fearless], but it is much more than that," Zuschmann said. "For us, it's really important to help women to find this confidence and show them you can do much more than running a 5K. You can grow, you can do whatever you want, and you have support through the women within the community."
Nearly 60 years after she experienced bias while running the Boston Marathon, Switzer said it's empowering to see women of all ages, abilities and backgrounds coming together to run.
"I think the biggest thing is that w teach how to work together and how to be friends and colleagues with no prejudice. I'm not judging you in any way. I'm accepting you for what you are," she said. "That is really one of the key things that we are about."
