Promotional cube for the Kraftwerk Radio-Activity album, 1975. Distributed to record stores by the American record label Capitol. Inspired by the “Volksempfänger” radio. Exhibition 2015. Röhsska Museum / Photo: Mikael Lammgård.
Ask Google who was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon and you’ll find the name Kathrine Switzer, along with a photo that appears to show a group of men chasing and manhandling a woman with the number 261 pinned to her midriff.
It is a shocking image that easily fits a narrative of embedded misogyny, but this is not the real story of the first woman to run the world’s oldest continually staged marathon. The truth, as so often, is far from black and white.
Bobbi Gibb, was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon in 1966, she ran without a number because women were not allowed in the race.
Gibb completed her first Boston Marathon in an impressive three hours, 21 minutes and 40 seconds - faster than two-thirds of the competitors.
A now iconic image shows her running alone, her face grimacing as she nears the finish line. On both sides, spectators crane their necks, ignoring other runners passing by, desperate to glimpse the first female finishing the storied race.
Crossing the line, she was greeted warmly by Massachusetts State Governor John Volpe, who shook her hand and offered his congratulations before being ushered into a hotel room where the world’s press waited breathlessly.
In 1967, she was joined by Katherine Switzer, the runner often portrayed as the first woman to run the race, who she beat by more than an hour. Katherine was the first woman to be registered to run the race using her initials and a male coach to pick up said number. The following year, five women ran the Boston Marathon, with Gibb winning once again.
In 2016, 50 years after that momentous race, Ethiopia’s Atsede Bayisa presented Gibb with her Boston Marathon winner’s trophy after learning of the events of 1966.
“Each year, they celebrate me as a three-time winner, which is fun, but the main thing is I get to meet all these amazing people from all over the world, all social groups, all ethnic groups, races, genders - we love each other - we make friends,” says Gibb.
A runner, scientist, lawyer, artist, and author - Bobbi Gibb has done it all and continues to promote a positive message regarding equality.
“One of my purposes was to end the stupid war between the sexes, where men had to live in this little box and women had to live in another little box,” says Gibb.
