Back in the 1970s, the prevailing thought was that it wasn’t safe for women to run. A leader in the fight for a woman’s right to run has died. Nina Kuscsik was 86.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
A leader in the fight for a woman’s right to run has died. Nina Kuscsik was 86 and the first official women’s champion of the Boston Marathon.
VALERIE ROGOSHESKE: She is wonderful. Just, with a capital T, trailblazer.
KELLY: That is Valerie Rogosheske, who ran alongside Kuscsik and six other women in the 1972 Boston Marathon – the first year they were permitted to compete in that storied race.
ROGOSHESKE: We were only welcomed into the race three weeks before the race, so there weren’t too many of us that were ready to go.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Now in her 70s, Rogosheske says she remembers that day well.
ROGOSHESKE: I think we all sort of knew that it was a very – kind of a historical moment. But I know that none of the eight of us was going to drop out. And I also felt like none of the eight of us was even going to walk because we felt that there were eyes on us. I just felt proud that we actually had a female winner. I think that was my overriding feeling, that finally, women were being recognized.
KELLY: Back in the 1970s, many people thought it wasn’t safe for women to run that far.
ROGOSHESKE: Even doctors were saying that women could not or should not run 26 miles because they might not be able to bear children after that. Their uteruses might – I don’t know – fall out (laughter), something like that. And so it just felt like a real uphill battle.
KELLY: Nina Kuscsik battled for that right. Rogosheske says Kuscsik’s work meant more to her than anyone could know.
ROGOSHESKE: She was just a really fine person (crying). I remember I saw her just three years ago, when we went to Boston to celebrate 50 years. And she was struggling with dementia then, but through it all, she was just so friendly, so open, so warm. She was quite a woman.
SUMMERS: Quite a woman indeed. As Kuscsik told a reporter after her Boston victory in 1972, according to Runner’s World magazine, running is neither masculine or feminine. It’s just healthy.
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