00:00Women were too fragile to compete in Olympic marathons. At least that's what the officials
00:05thought. So as Joan Benoit rocketed into the booming LA Olympic Stadium in first place,
00:10it was a massive F.U. to everyone who said it wasn't possible. As recent as 1966,
00:16officials were still claiming that women were physiologically incapable of running the distance,
00:21at the time prompting female runner Bobby Gibb to hide in the bushes near the starting line of the
00:26Boston Marathon and then sneak into the race, finishing in the top 30% of male runners.
00:31Then the following year, there was Catherine Switzer, who managed to secretly register for
00:35the Boston Marathon with only her initials, when the race organiser realised he was furious and he
00:41even tried to physically rip her out of the race, only to be bowled over by Catherine's boyfriend
00:46for putting hands on her. So when they finally included a women's marathon in the 1984 LA Olympics,
00:52Joan Benoit, along with all the others who finished, inspired women all over the world
00:56to fight the limitations that others tried to impose upon them.
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