The Boston Marathon Did Not Want Women Running in 1967. Kathrine Switzer Ran Anyway
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, The Boston Marathon had never officially allowed a woman to compete when Kathrine Switzer pinned on her bib number in 1967 and stepped to the starting line. Just minutes into the race, an angry official stormed toward her and tried to rip her out of the pack in front of reporters and spectators. Switzer herself joins us to share how she kept running through the chaos and how that moment helped change the future of women’s sports.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:14.1 | This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, |
| 0:18.6 | and we tell stories about everything here on this show, including yours, send |
| 0:22.3 | them to Our American Stories.com. They're some of our favorites. Catherine Switzer was the first |
| 0:28.5 | woman to run the Boston Marathon. This is her story of why she ran it and what happened |
| 0:35.0 | when she did. |
| 0:44.9 | I was the first woman to actually register for the race and pin on a bib and go to the start line and run the Boston Marathon. There was a woman the year before named Bobby Gibb |
| 0:49.6 | who jumped in the race unregistered and I don't want to take anything away from her. But what is really |
| 0:56.3 | amazing about my story, sometimes the worst things in your life can become the best things in your |
| 1:01.1 | life. And that is that when I showed up at the starting line of the Boston Marathon, I was I was with my |
| 1:08.7 | coach, my teammates and it was a snowy, sleety, horrible day. |
| 1:14.5 | And yet all the guys in the race were so wonderful and welcoming to me. And they were excited |
| 1:19.8 | that a woman was registered and signed up for the race. And they would say, hey, I wish my wife |
| 1:24.3 | would run. I wish my girlfriend would run. Go for it. We're with you all the way. |
| 1:34.7 | And they were extremely, extremely motivating. And it was a wonderful, wonderful time until the gun went off. And then down the street we went. I was very, very happy to finally be running the Boston Marathon. |
| 1:40.3 | And the official truck came by and the press truck came by at the same time. First was the press |
| 1:47.6 | truck and they were honking at us to move over because they were coming through and taking |
| 1:51.4 | pictures shooting from the back of the truck as we were running toward them. And the officials |
| 1:57.6 | and the photographers just went crazy seeing there was a girl in the race wearing |
| 2:02.6 | bib numbers. |
| 2:04.2 | And they began teasing one of the officials on the official bus and his name was Jock Semple. |
... |
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