On Sunday morning, working icon Joan Benoit Samuelson claimed her sixth and last Abbott World Marathon Main star, clocking 3:42:18 on the Tokyo Marathon. The American distance working legend added one other outstanding chapter to a storied profession that features wins on the 1979 and 1983 Boston Marathon and the 1985 Chicago Marathon.
The Abbott World Marathon Majors embody the Tokyo Marathon, Boston Marathon, London Marathon, Berlin Marathon, Chicago Marathon and the New York Metropolis Marathon. In 2022, Benoit Samuelson checked her fifth main off her checklist, profitable her age group on the London Marathon in 3:20:20; her daughter Abby ran as properly, ending just below three hours.
Olympic gold 1984 🥇
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Six Star Medal 2024 🎖️🙏 Joan Benoit Samuelson is a residing legend pic.twitter.com/KNFj8Clqm3
— Abbott WMMajors (@WMMajors) March 3, 2024
From Cape Elizabeth, Maine, Benoit Samuelson first gained worldwide acclaim when she turned the inaugural girls’s Olympic marathon champion on the 1984 Summer time Video games in Los Angeles. Her groundbreaking victory set the stage for a profession outlined by trailblazing achievements. Benoit Samuelson held the quickest time for an American lady on the Chicago Marathon for 32 years after her 1985 victory, and her time on the Boston Marathon was the quickest time by an American lady at that race for 28 years Her private finest of two:21:21 remains to be eighth on the U.S. all-time checklist.
Benoit Samuelson is the one lady on the earth to have run sub-three-hour marathons in 5 consecutive many years, her first in 1979 and her most up-to-date in 2010. On the 2019 Berlin Marathon, she ran 3:02, almost turning into the primary lady to clock a sub-three in six consecutive many years. In 2019, Benoit Samuelson ran the Boston Marathon to rejoice her then 40-year-old victory from 1979, carrying the identical outfit she donned 4 many years earlier than—a backward ball cap and a Bowdoin School singlet (she gained her age class, and completed in 3:04:00, solely 28:45 minutes slower than her time in 1979).
Past her accomplishments on the highway, Samuelson has been an advocate for girls’s participation in sports activities and has performed a pivotal position in advancing alternatives for girls athletes. After the 2022 London Marathon, Benoit Samuelson instructed the media: “I’m blessed to have longevity on this sport. It doesn’t owe me something, however I really feel I owe my sport.”
