It was half a century ago. That first Sunday morning in October 1972, the sun was shining in Central Park and the 284 runners of the third New York Marathon were warming up. And then it’s time. At the head of the group, six women are preparing to take off, ten minutes before the departure announced for the men, this is the rule … Only when the shot is fired they sit cross-legged on the asphalt! Amazement. Nobody is running. A photographer captures the moment: the next day, Lynn Blackstone, Jane Muhrcke, Liz Franceschini, Patricia Barrett, Nina Kuscsik and Cathy Miller find themselves photographed in the New York Times. On the ground and holding improvised signs on which you can read slogans in large letters … “Hey Athletic Amateur Union, it’s 1972, wake up! “ OR : “The AAU is archaic! “ Another : “The AAU is the Middle Ages! “ These six young women go down in sports history.
