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Surprisingly, given progress in other events after World War II, women were not allowed to run marathon events in many places and in particular the Olympics. In the 1896 Olympics, Stamatis Rovithi became the first woman to run the marathon; however, she did this by not running the official course but rather in a track parallel to the course. She finished about 1.5 hours behind the winner of the race but did pass many men during her running. Violet Piercy was the first woman to be officially timed in a marathon race in 1926, with a time of 3:40:22. Because so few women were allowed to run, this record stood for more than 37 years. In the 1966 Boston Marathon, Roberta Gibb sneaked into the race and ran an unofficial time of 3:21:25, becoming the first woman known to complete the course. In another well-known incident, in 1967 an entrant named K.V. Switzer ran the race. However, the person was really Kathrine Switzer. Race officials only found out it was a woman after the race had begun.

In a somewhat comical event, the officials tried to pull her out of the race during the running once they found out the runner was a woman, but her teammates fended their attempts and she was able to complete the event with a time of over 4 hours. It was only in the 1970s that women's marathons, particularly in Germany, began to be organized. The main issue was many doctors at the time and health professionals strongly believe women's bodies could not cope with the long-distance race. However, it was also the Olympic rules that prevented the women's marathon from becoming official, as it required 25 countries to hold the event for it to be an official event. The same Kathrine Switzer who ran the Boston Marathon began organizing a series of women's running events and obtained powerful sponsorship from legislators and, most importantly, corporate money (Avon in particular). Finally, in the Los Angles Olympics in 1984, the Olympics held it first women's marathon event, won by Joan Benoit from the US with a time of 2:24:52. By then, there were 28 countries now competing in this event for women.<ref>For more on the history of the marathon and women, see: Switzer, Kathrine. 2009. <i>Marathon Woman: Running the Race to Revolutionize Women’s Sports</i>. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.</ref>