Kathrine Switzer

Kathrine Virginia Switzer, born on 5 January 1947, is an American marathon runner, author and television commentator. In 1967 she became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as an officially registered competitor, entering as K.V. Switzer, and race manager Jock Semple tried to grab her bib number during the race, an attack that was photographed and reported around the world. The AAU responded by banning women from races against men, and in 1972 the Boston Marathon accepted women officially, when Switzer finished third. She won the 1974 New York City Marathon in 3:07:29, set a personal best of 2:51:37 at Boston in 1975, and was named Female Runner of the Decade by Runner's World. She created the Avon Running Global Women's Circuit, which helped bring a women's marathon to the 1984 Olympics, wrote the memoir Marathon Woman, and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2011.