"With children and marriage priorities, my focus has changed,'' she says by phone from her seaside home in Freeport. She finished in 12th place, in 2:41:06.īut Samuelson insists family, not the finish line, is now her prime interest. She entered the New York City Marathon that Sunday morning. She had a short list of cities drawn up but found herself in New York, speaking for Nike, the athletic equipment giant that sponsors her in races. women's marathon record of 2:21:21, set in Chicago in 1985 - was looking for another marathon, hoping to beat 2:42 to qualify for the trials in 2000. Last fall, Samuelson - who still holds the U.S. Three months later, she collected the gold medal. She won the trials with a time of 2:31:04.
In late April, she had arthroscopic surgery, then a relatively new procedure. Cortisone shots didn't help, and a month later, she could barely hobble through 5 kilometres (3 miles). Samuelson had felt a twinge in her right knee in March 1984. If her age today might seem an obstacle to a spot in next year's Sydney Olympics, back then it was surgery on her right knee just 17 days before the trials.
``It closed the book on whether women were made of the right stuff in distance running.'' She ran with a determination that from beginning to end never wavered,'' Lopiano said. 5, 1984, silenced those who claimed women were physically incapable of running long distances, says Donna Lopiano, the foundation's executive director. Samuelson's victory in the inaugural Olympic marathon, Aug. If they'd finished third, I don't think there would be quite as much excitement about it.'' ``Joan, as an athlete, came along at the right moment and had the right attitude about sport,'' Snyder said. Samuelson showed regular people what could be accomplished with hard work, says Marjorie Snyder, associate executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation. ``There were pioneers in sports that opened the door for me, and I would like to think in some small way, I helped open the doors for the young women. soccer victory in the World Cup and the rapid expansion of the WNBA. Samuelson says she's thrilled with the growing excitement over women's sports, especially the recent U.S. Now, at 42, she still runs every day and last fall qualified for the 2000 U.S. Joan Benoit Samuelson is a soccer mom these days, more interested in her kids' games than in running marathons.įifteen years ago, she won the gold medal in Los Angeles in the first women's Olympic marathon.
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