Women were once banned from the Boston Marathon. Bobbi Gibb ran anyway.

April 14, 2026

Women were once banned from the Boston Marathon, but in 1966 Bobbi Gibb ran the race anyway, becoming the first woman to complete it and helping to shatter the myth that women were physically incapable of running marathons.

In 1966 the Boston Marathon was officially men‑only, and women were barred by Amateur Athletic Union rules that limited them to just 1.5 miles in competition. Gibb, then 23, applied to run but was told women could not handle 26.2 miles; instead of obeying, she hid near the start line in Hopkinton and joined the men, finishing in about 3 hours 21 minutes.

Gibb’s run was not just personal—it challenged deeply held prejudices that women were too weak for endurance sports and limited in other realms such as medicine, law, and science. Her insistence that women could run just as far as men helped open the door for women’s inclusion in marathons and contributed to the later growth of women’s professional sports and opportunities in many fields.

Sixty years later, Boston formally honors Gibb with a life‑size bronze statue near the Hopkinton start line, depicting her mid‑stride at age 23. The piece, which she sculpted herself, now stands as a permanent symbol of how one act of courage helped reshape perceptions of women in athletics and beyond. WGBH