The Road to the First Olympic Women's Marathon

The Shakeout Podcast · Mar 19, 2018 · 19m

Silvia Ruegger represented Canada at the very first women’s marathon at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, at a time when women’s distance running was just starting to be accepted on the world stage.

Her plan to become an Olympian began when she was just 15 years old. On September 11, 1976, Ruegger sat in her bedroom in an old farmhouse in Newtonville, Ontario writing a note. It read: I will represent Canada at the Olympic Games. She then took the note and tucked it underneath the floorboards where no one else could see it. Eight years later, Ruegger became one of fifty women to race at…