And i saw the space and this man grabbed me like this and a stream to get the hell out of my race. It was big we didnt know how big it would become. With ms doesnt become one of the great things in school and sports and sports history lets be honest with. The. Uk. Boston massachusetts a city on the east coast of the United States the worlds biggest and most important market is held him this year will be the one hundred twenty first time. Bus in this Boston Marathon because of the whole tradition its the oldest marathon in the world is that its also some other time the. Thirteen thousand women now participate in the Boston Marathon thats an incredible think of. Katherine switzer is seventy years old and yet shes still the star at this years Boston Marathon. She talks about the event she experienced fifty years ago she sought after everywhere including here at burns to sixty one Running Group named after Katherine Switzers famous number from the n one nine hundred sixty seven. When she talks about running its always about life as well shes an inspiration to us all thats on. A walk with Katherine Switzer. Were heading to the finish line of the Boston Marathon. I dont show to you. In a few days time she wants to run this race again fifty years after the original event. And watching it that they watch the race right there at. Nine hundred sixty six i heard from a friend of mine here and Cross Country about an event called the Boston Marathon and it lodged in my brain that someday i would really love to do that and i said to him hey did a girl run the Boston Marathon too and he said yes in one thousand nine hundred. Six bobby give jumped out of the bushes and ran the race bobby good had run the Boston Mountain one year before catherine but without an official number she got onto the track from a hiding place and i said well thats great see a woman can do it twenty six miles forty two kilometers sure. Her father encouraged the Young Katherine to do Long Distance running despite the many prejudices. People still whispered about the medical implications you know that maybe youre going to turn into a man maybe you are a man or that youre going to get big legs or that your uterus is going to fall out youll never have children all of these things were myths that held women back and made them afraid and also made men say we have to protect women we cant let them do these Long Distance things we dont want them to hurt themselves. In one thousand nine hundred sixty seven only men were officially allowed to run the mountain and yet switzer registered for boston so i filled out the entry form but i signed it of course how i signed my name k. V. Switzer and when the entry form when they thought it was from a man i didnt know that it wasnt intentional i was only going to boston to run. The beginning the beginning of the race the day was like no other Boston Marathon zero marathons we go went to the starting line is so us some people some people we didnt know interviewed came back. We we went and then they we went on a bus the press bus after about two or three miles it warmed up and everyone was taking off the hoods the buses the buses going by a pack and suddenly a boston writer said. Jock theres a woman in your race. John christy. Youve used various he didnt know what to say is that stop the bus stop the bus off of this bus behind me came one of the co race directors his name was jock sample and the men on the bus the journalists had been teasing him saying hey look theres a girl in your race shes wearing big numbers jock sample jumped off the truck and went to grab the number and as he did that i actually didnt see him coming and i didnt hear him until the last minute when i heard these leather shoes in a different pace from the rubber shoes and i turned like this and i saw this face and as i turned i got away from him then he grabbed my shirt was pulling it and went for the one on the back and in fact this is the one that was on the back and he caught the outside corner right here and with that my boyfriend who happened to be a two hundred thirty five pound ex allamerican Football Player came running full tilt and hit the official like this jock and sent him flying. I saw tom hit him and at the same time when i saw tom hit him i saw him come flying across the front of me and i actually i i must misremembered this because the video doesnt show this but i remember hitting him with my knee was really really embarrassing and scary i was really quite terrified i didnt know what to do i felt like i had stepped into some sacred place and messed it up somehow i felt terribly unwelcome and i just for a split Second Thought maybe i should step often and go home and then i thought no if i if i step off the course if i dont finish this race. I dont stay in the race no matter what people are going to say women cant do this when it happened we werent frightened on the press bus we were taking notes like crazy you know is that we know there was this is big it was big we didnt know how big it would become it was is this a become one of the great things and in sports and sports history lets be honest with the the rise of women to equality. One journalist said what are you trying to prove and i said im not trying to prove anything but i will tell you something that one day women is running is going to be as popular and publicize a bill as mens and i said ill be back at boston. It was the start of a long battle for equality it wasnt until nine hundred seventy two that women were officially allowed to participate in the Boston Marathon. In germany sports physician outfront aachen paved the way for the womens marathon aachen proof that women had more in junior and. Just a little of the form of female mouth and world record holder christa violins each and her former coach Manfred Stefani meet again in the late sixtys christa violin sic was a medium distance runner. My friend stephanie has kept all the articles from those days. For missteps there were no Long Distances for me back then i ran the longest distance available that was fifteen hundred meters and eight hundred before that in one nine hundred sixty seven when the first women participated in marathons i had heard of this event but i hadnt taken any interest in it were interested in on the moment. Women women running women running a marathon is not an entirely new phenomenon in recent years bills have snuck into such competitions from time to time a competition reserved for men since four hundred ninety b. C. But those were isolated cases however that the strong sex accepted with generosity in a benign smile they were a curiosity. And i. Always thought women should run marathons and that they would be better at relatively speaking than man or does he really pushed that he was also the first to introduce the womens marathon in one thousand nine hundred ninety three i dont prefer to lock in came forward with medical evidence that showed women had natural capacity and endurance and stamina he was a doctor a physician so heres work in his research gave us so much credibility and that was an amazing discovery that helped convince many many people in a simple way that women could be superior and fun arc in conducted further research into the in durance capacity of women i know you believe that women can cope with these stresses can you explain that. So first of course women can cope with these stresses their muscle composition makes them superior here and then have too much muscle mass and therefore too much water only twenty three percent of a womans body weight just muscle that means less water she has more subcutaneous fat reserves. Valve neo is a small town on the lower rhine fan arkan put on the first marathon just for women here. He made phone calls and convinced women to participate so the aim was to prove that women could run a marathon it was part of womens emancipation a month apart see on. The new marathon distance was perfect for cristoval and seek me coffer schlager she started her Long Distance running career in the seventys. Coached by her fellow club member Manfred Stefani chris accomplish lega has achieved an incredible result ten minutes before the finish line she separated from the leading pack and created a lead of almost two kilometers. Just before crossing the finish line she looks like shes running a few hundred metres on a training run looking completely fresh and running with excellent style shes heading towards a new european record youre not completely exhausted no not anywhere but dr van auken this confirms your theory that women are also suited to running marathons definitely i follow the race particularly over the last ten thousand metres during which most runners performance drops she was the fastest. I remember two men accompanied us some bicycles and always slow this down so we wouldnt run too fast and would reach the finish line you really felt like the press was just waiting for us to drop like flies but we all crossed the finish line just fine. It was a milestone for many years we were leaders in womens marathon running along with the United States and that america was our skype and there were no other americans but half a year later dr fun can invite us to participate in the Boston Marathon which he paid for two months yet the first time i think i heard of him was when i. Set a world record in the womens marathon and i was so excited to read about this and then it seemed that somebody else from germany was always coming through the great christa fallen sick and then he brought them to boston and they performed so incredibly well here yes it was amazing and we were really all envious and wondering what was going on in germany and if we could be a part of it so many at least women will acknowledge that as one is on par with the man. This impressive demonstration by the two hundred sixty two women runners from all five continents cause the International Association of athletics federations to send to observe this about new york to see whether this marathon. Discipline was a worthy olympic sport for women. Attention around the subject grew in one nine hundred seventy nine women were running their own races the way to the Olympic Games seemed to be open. From that we realized that women would participate if they were given an event that was not intimidating and welcoming to them and i thought this is the way to get the marathon in the Olympic Games. The goal was clear the marathon women wanted to take part in the Olympic Games and dispel the prejudices once and for all in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine the german sports show. Studio even broadcast a Panel Discussion on the matter. Back in boston at the finishing line. So the risk of Catherine Smith says meeting one of todays race directors a conversation about the preparations to the race. Who to pick three time winner of the Boston Marathon is in the press center memories of a time when women running the marathon wasnt commonly accepted jet. Skiing up and decision talking points included the safety and health of women if you allow some women to run then thousands of women will want to run many things werent that accepted back then and these areas have to be broken down fast yes most. Vendors. Have trained switzer placed second in boston in one hundred seventy five. She traveled around the world. Los angeles in one hundred eighty four. The Opening Ceremony of the of the pick games. There was a new entry among the competitions the womens marathon. I had invested so much of my life and emotion and work into trying to have this moment happened and here it was it was happening and it was happening so beautifully. Fifty women run a stood at the start line in the santa monica stadium ready to run forty two kilometers. Just. I think one or two laps i forget how many at the beginning and then they went out and went around town and wherever. Someone high above let an american win john Benoit Samuelson a great great writer and another person who pushed very hard for womens equality. And we watched joan Benoit Samuelson break away very early in the race and theres that moment you think is this a bad mistake because shes with very experienced people but she took a huge risk and it turned out to be one of the most amazing races in history. But who could ever forget her running through the streets of los angeles and heading to the Olympic Stadium and you know theres that tunnel that you have to go through into the stadium and as she headed toward that tunnel i was thinking how much shes like womens history in that because shes outside of the tunnel and then she goes into the darkness and when she comes out of that dark and shes going to be in the stadium that is going to erupt. She took the race right onto the track ran an incredibly fast lap and crossed the finish line to you know ninety thousand people screaming. And i thought this moment is important is giving women the right to vote. I said to make poetry Everyone Wants this race the most was going to when it was my day at the stars were aligned for me. Because then. I just ran my own race. This is the the payoff known. Twenty minutes after the last person came and another woman came and go to the real last a swiss woman and. Anderson. And. She was apparently missed. Water station she she had no no sugar in her body. Cameras stayed on her for six minutes and she went around the stadium and it seemed agonizing it seemed like you know years and the crowd was cheering her and cheering her and willing her but the whole time i was also thinking whats going to happen now are people going to say women are too weak and too fragile after all it was a really difficult evening for me and i just whipped from this high to this low. I felt so sorry for Gabriel Anderson because she was an incredible athlete it was the next day she was bright as a button went to a press conference recovered and instead of people saying that was a terrible thing they made her a heroine and i said yes maybe equality is also about being allowed to be exhausted in public. The day of the Boston Marathon last Easter MondayKatherine Switzer early in the morning before the start. Of. The race starts here in hopkinton fifty years ago it was a journey into the unknown for cancer in switzerland. Today shes participating in the race with a round one hundred women from her two six one fearless movement. On. The road to the start her number two six one has long become a symbol. They were even tattooing themselves and when people send you a tattoo of your obit number and say this makes me feel fearless you have to take it seriously we decided to create a movement with this and a nonprofit called two six one fearless and to use that same vehicle to reach women who are fearful fearless women like us with running what help fearful women because it changes lives. Boston Katherine Switzer can finally stop running. Director of global two six one club network. Is following the race in the media center. Says quote on the stop she got to the start well which is quite a challenge in boston and then she got going in high spirits with our hundred line is and what was great is that we made a live recording in the exact place where the incident took place back then most of what ive said was. The second. Is wrong and that was right. Which oksana tried on my bed and im a good natured sucker i recognize her. And. Just suddenly recognize realize this is what had. Come with a it. Was. The finish line on the legendary boylston street in boston more than thirty thousand runners complete the rush thank. You out. After a good four and a half hours conference with completes a knife boston mass and thanks. To our. Thanks to our. An interview after crossing the finishing line. The American Networks get in with the first questions. And hes young hasnt it actually come out i mean in a sense. Well you know yeah. I feel overwhelmingly grateful for the streets of boston they started my journey fifty years ago with a very negative thing an attack by a race director trying to throw me out of the race and pull off my big numbers jock semple and i the man who tried to throw me out of the race fifty years ago he and i became best of friends that photo has become an iconic photo is and it is when it now must galvanize hundreds of womens rights movement. At last a little bit of peace and quiet and some time for her husband real job robinson. You know proud i think. And really you naturally because you never know whats going to happen and in america but also not really surprised because catherine is a person of such deep resolution of a determination but i always thought she would do it the anxiety has been the pressure put on her for just especially this week in boston and for the last several months there are those who see the world as it is and ask why and there are others who see the world as it should be and ask why not i have always thought that perfectly fits Katherine Switzer the Catholic Catherine was i think the most important person in the rise a women to equality. The Boston Marathon will never give out big number two hundred sixty one again its the first time in its one hundred twenty one year history in honor of pioneer ronna capturing switzerland and so. On. This week its. The shoes the cakes combines fashion and food and. I smell. The. Move to. An island with sweet music and its multifaceted. Official estimates more than one point to to. Return. To visit friends is that i dont think id ever go back there to live you know what i live there again i dont know so im not sure. Bearing witness global news that matters g. W. Made from minds. Its all about the moments that. Its all about the still lives inside. Its all about George Chance to discover the world from different perspectives. Join us and inspired by distinctive instagram others at g. W. Stories the new topic each week on instagram. Your children like chocolate. You cant live without your smartphone. To buy your tomatoes in the supermarket. As we go about our daily life human rights oh often the last thing on our lives. Invisible hand is. Slavery in the twenty first century. Starting december second on d w. This is d. W. News live from berlin zimbabweans turned out in the tens of thousands to protest to to demand the resignation of president Robert Mugabe the streets