California Track & Running News July-Aug 2013, VOLUME 39 NUMBER 3 | Seite 13

Joe Henderson: Nina, you started running in the
’60s when there weren’t a lot of women running.
What triggered your desire to become a runner?

Nina Kuscsik: I was an athlete anyway. In 1960, I
was the New York state champion in bicycle racing, speed skating on ice, and roller skating. Then
I started to have children. In 1967, Bill Bowerman
[a track & field coach and cofounder of Nike]
came out with a book called Jogging, and it cost
$1. I opened the book and saw women running in
their raincoats who looked like they were in their
40s. I thought, “If they can do it, I can do it.” I’d
been running anyway as training for speed skating
on ice.
My husband and myself and two other guys
from speed skating [Charlie Blum and Bob Muller]
got our first issue of the Long Distance Log [a
monthly publication that carried results and articles of interest to distance runners] in 1968. It
showed Elaine Pederson jumping into the 1968
Boston Marathon from the sidelines. I’d never
heard of Katherine Switzer, but I knew women
weren’t officially allowed in the Boston Marathon.
It didn’t matter to me at all. We trained for, and
ran, the 1969 Boston Marathon. From there, we
met the New York Road Runners, got involved,
and I increased my mileage and lowered my times.
Then I thought, “Why can’t we be official?” I
went to the AAU national convention in 1971 with
some resolutions in mind. As a result of Kuscsik’s
proposal, the AAU resolved that “certain
women,” without further definition, could participate in marathons; however, they were required
to start 10 minutes before or after the men or on
a different starting line.

Tom Sturak

NINA KUSCSIK
In 1970 at the AAU annual meeting, a high official
on the AAU’s Women’s Track & Field Committee
said that women’s long-distance running wasn’t
worth bothering with because those involved
were largely bored housewives. Two years later,
the Boston Marathon saw the light, and Nina Kuscsik—who had run in the race unofficially in 1969—
became the first official women’s winner. Kuscsik
also won the 1972 New York City Marathon after
participating in a sit-down strike with five other
women at the starting line in protest of the separate women’s start imposed by the AAU to prevent them from competing with men.
Kuscsik, a true rebel with a running cause in
the early days of women’s marathoning, had neither a high school or college distance-running
background. At the time, there were no programs
for women in the discipline.
Kuscsik, now 74, still lives on Long Island, NY,
where she was born. She is a vocal member of
USATF’s Women’s Long Distance Running Committee, Law and Legislation Committee, and Rules
Committee. Last year, Kuscsik was inducted into
the New York Road Runners Hall of Fame on the
40th anniversary of her New York City Marathon
victory. She was inducted into the USA National
Distance Running Hall of Fame in 1999.

Nina Kuscsik (#204) and
Jacqueline Hansen at the
first Women’s International
Marathon Championships in
Waldniel, West Germany
in 1974.

continued on page 14

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