NYRR has a history of women in leadership roles stretching back to our early days. Throughout our history, all of our leaders have worked and advocated for equal opportunities and recognition for women runners.
In this year of the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark legislation that paved the way for equal opportunities for women and girls in sports, we highlight a few of the past and current women leaders at NYRR. We look forward to telling more stories of all women in our history and our women leaders today.
Nina Kuscsik and Kathrine Switzer
Trailblazing pioneers Nina Kuscsik and Kathrine Switzer became involved with NYRR in the late 1960s and appear on our membership roster starting in 1970, when both had become well known in distance running.
Kuscsik, pictured above, ran the 1969 Boston Marathon—unofficially, as women were not accepted as official finishers at Boston until 1972—and was the sole woman participant in the 1970 New York City Marathon. Switzer, pictured below, famously finished the Boston Marathon in 1967 wearing a bib number, defying race officials who tried to remove her from the course. Both would go on to win the New York City Marathon—Kuscsik in 1972 and ’73 and Switzer in 1974.
