On This Day: August 5, 1984 — Joan Benoit Wins the First Women’s Olympic Marathon
On a sweltering August morning in Los Angeles, a 27-year-old woman from Maine ran into history. When Joan Benoit Samuelson entered the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 5, 1984, she wasn’t just crossing a finish line — she was rewriting what was possible for women in sport. She raised her white painter’s cap, the…
