Starting Line 1928

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12 | Julie A. Brown Sep 15, 2022

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Julie A. Brown grew up in Billings, Montana, as one of five, and began her running career when she followed in her sister's footsteps and joined the high school cross-country team. Before long, she was paving her own path. Eventually, she made many US national teams during and after college. She excelled in an impressive range of events—from the 4x400 to the marathon to cross country. Notably, she was the first U.S. woman to win the IAAF Cross Country championships in 1975, ran a 2:26:26 marathon, and qualified for the first-ever women's Olympic Marathon.

11 | Michele Tiff-Hill Sep 01, 2022

Show notes

Michele Tiff-Hill grew up in Cleveland, into a very athletic family, but didn't get into running herself until her late 20s. Instead, she focused on her music career in high school, college, and beyond. She took up running in an effort to simply be more active with all the hours she spent sitting at the piano bench every day. Though she initially did her running in secret, she quickly grew more motivated to improve her race times. She ran her first race, a 10K, in about 52 minutes; eventually, she'd become the first Black woman to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the marathon in 1984, qualifying in a time of 2:50:19 at the 1983 Sri Chinmoy Marathon. Tiff-Hill was recently inducted into the National Black Distance Running Hall of Fame and featured in a documentary about Black women who have broken three hours in the marathon.

10 | Ann Gaffigan Aug 18, 2022

Show notes

At the 2004 Olympic Trials, Ann Gaffigan won the 3,000-meter steeplechase and set an American record. But the women's steeplechase wasn't yet an Olympic event, so it was only an exhibition event at the trials, and Gaffigan's win didn't earn her a ticket to the Olympics. It was the best day of her life, Gaffigan says, and she was proud of what she'd accomplished—but competing at the Olympics had been her childhood dream, and she didn't get to go, despite the fact that men had been competing in the steeplechase at the Olympics for more than a century. She channeled her drive to support women and girls in sports into a website called WomenTalkSports and other avenues, including serving on the USATF Athletes Advisory Committee from 2006 to 2019.

9 | Madeline Manning Mims Jul 21, 2022

Show notes

While attending Tennessee State University, Mims became the first African-American woman to compete in the 800 meters and the first American to win Olympic gold at the 1968 Games in Mexico City. From 1967 to 1980, she won 10 national indoor and outdoor titles and set several American records. Her fastest 800-meter time, 1:57.9 in 1976, was a long-standing American record in the event. Today, being an "overcomer" informs Mims's work as an motivational speaker and chaplain for the U.S. Olympic team. She is also the founder and president of the United States Council for Sports Chaplaincy.

8 | Robin Campbell Bennett Jun 16, 2022

Show notes

Between 1972 and 1976, Robin Campbell Bennett competed in events across the United States, winning and medaling at many of them. In 1974, she set the American Record in both the 600 meter and 1000 meter events. She also competed at the USA vs China Friendship Competition in Shanghai, China in 1975. Then, in 1976 Robin participated as an Olympic Trials Qualifier in the 400-, 800-, and 1500-meter events in Eugene, Oregon. She was also a sponsored athlete of the Puma Track Club, perhaps paving the way for female athletes of today to garner such paid sponsorships.

7 | Charlotte Lettis Richardson May 19, 2022

Show notes

Charlotte Lettis Richardson begin running in 1971 and competed at the national and international level in distances from the 800 meters to 30K. She started a women's running club in 1972, won the 1975 L'eggs Mini Marathon, and made the Olympic Trials in the 1500 meters in 1976. She's also a storyteller who wrote and directed the 2005 documentary "Run Like a Girl." Richardson currently lives in Sisters, Oregon, where she coaches at Caldera High School. She's approaching her 50th year in coaching and is also co-founder of the Women's Running Coaches Collective.

6 | Jacqueline Hansen Apr 14, 2022

Show notes

Jacqueline Hansen is a two-time world record holder in the marathon; she was the first woman to break the sub-2:40 mark with her 2:38.19 world record time. She is the 1973 Boston Marathon winner, a national collegiate champion in the mile, and a Masters World Champion in the 1500m and 5,000m distances. As President of the International Runners Committee, she spearheaded a movement to usher the women's distance events (marathon, 5,000m & 10,000m) into the Olympic Games.

5 | Freddi Carlip Feb 10, 2022

Show notes

"I look back now and I don't think of myself as a trailblazer. We were setting the standard for other women and encouraging them."

Freddi Carlip started casually running in 1978 as an outlet from her daily life as a stay-at-home mom to two small children. Little did she know that the healthy activity would soon become her life's work.

In addition to serving as a founding member of the Starting Line 1928 oral history project, Carlip has served multiple terms as the President of the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA), has been publisher and editor of Runner's Gazette since 1981, and successfully helped lobby for the inclusion of women's 5,000 meters and marathon distances in the Olympic Games.

4 | Alisa Harvey Dec 02, 2021

Show notes

"I wasn't known for anything else but my running. That's what I kind of latched onto. I didn't have many extras, like summer camps or lots of material goods, but I did have my running and my legs and a TV set and goals."

Alisa Harvey's impressive running career spans decades and distances. The first time she qualified for the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials was in 1988, in the 1500 meters, when she was still a student at the University of Tennessee. The last time she did so was in the 800 meters in 2008—at age 42.

In between, she won gold in the 1991 Pan American Games in the 1500 meters. She qualified for the 2000 Olympic Marathon Trials by running 2:49:28 in her debut at the distance. And, she's notched countless victories in road races, including the Fifth Avenue Mile and the Army Ten-Miler.

At 56, she might no longer be able to match her personal best of 1:59.72 in the 800 meters, but Harvey still competes at a high level, chasing Master's records on the track and the roads. And, she's coaching athletes who range from ages 10 to 95, aiming to help them pursue the same long-term success she's experienced.

3 | Judy Shapiro-Ikenberry Nov 04, 2021

Show notes

"They [the men] didn't like it when we beat them, but they were very accepting and very encouraging. It was always the officials that were the problem, you know, and it's just two different classes of people. And they get their kicks from enforcing the rules. We got our kicks from being in shape."

Judy Shapiro-Ikenberry ran in her first track meet at age 12, and her first Olympic Trials, in the 800 meters, at age 17. She continued to train and took on longer distances while working as a teacher. She won her first marathon, the 1967 Las Vegas Marathon, in 3:40:51, and in 1974 won the first U.S. marathon championship for women in 2:55:18. She later moved to ultrarunning and won the national 50-mile track championship in 1977. In the late 1970s, she and her coach/husband Dennis Ikenberry started Race Central, a race timing company that helped put on some of the biggest races in the U.S. and around the world.

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