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(Photo: Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift)
2. It's Boston Marathon weekend 🏃♀️
On Monday (yes, on a Monday) over 30,000 runners will tackle the 129th Boston Marathon. It's the oldest annual marathon in the world, first run in 1897, and qualifying times have gotten harder than ever in recent years (as more and more athletes want to run the exclusive event). But women weren't officially allowed to run until 1972 😠
Of course, that didn't stop some women from paving the way early.
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Bobbi Gibb ran in 1966, '67, and '68—hiding in the bushes and jumping into the race once it had started.
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Kathrine Switzer registered in 1967 as “K.V. Switzer” and had a now-famous showdown with race official Jock Semple, who tried to pull her off the course once he realized "K.V" was a woman. LISTEN to her tell the story herself. (He later became a staunch supporter of women in the marathon.)
This year, a 79-year-old retired nurse will run her 39th straight Boston Marathon *and* serve as the starter for the women's pro race 👏
Who to watch
- Hellen Obiri 🇰🇪 is trying for her 3rd straight Boston title
- Sharon Lokedi 🇰🇪 was second last year after winning New York on her marathon debut
- Amane Beriso Shankule 🇪🇹 has a marathon PR of 2:14:58
- Des Linden 🇺🇸 won in the wild stormy race of 2018 and will be making her 12th Boston start
- Emma Bates 🇺🇸 was 5th last year
WATCH: On Channel 5 in Boston; on ESPN2 in the U.S., starting at 9 a.m. ET; and live streamed on the Very Local app
TIPS IF YOU'RE IN TOWN: From a local
3. L.A. Olympics could feature more female than male athletes for the first time ⭐
A number of new Olympic additions and changes were approved last week for LA28, all aimed at increasing representation across sports and events. For the first Games ever, the number of women's Olympic quota spots will now exceed the number of men's spots (5,655 women's spots v. 5,543 men's).
This includes:
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⚽ The women's soccer tournament will (finally!) expand from 12 teams to 16 teams — while the men's tournament (which is limited to U23 players and tends to be less important in the world calendar) will decrease from 16 to 12 teams
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🤽♀️ Women's water polo will also expand from 10 teams to 12, equal to the men's
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🏀 3v3 basketball will increase from 8 to 12 teams
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🥊 Boxing is adding a women's weight class to achieve parity with the men's competition
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🏊♀️ Swimming is adding 50m breast, fly, and back sprints to both the men's & women's competitions
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🧗♀️ Climbing will separate its two disciplines — boulder & lead climbing — into two events instead of combining them (with speed climbing as a third discipline)
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The LA Olympics are also adding four new sports — flag football, cricket, lacrosse (all of which will have 6 teams competing) and squash — and bringing back baseball & softball
Plus, a number of new mixed events were added to the Olympic calendar: a mixed 4x100m relay in track, a mixed team event in gymnastics for the first time, and mixed events in rowing, table tennis, golf, and archery.
🏅🏅🏅This now makes the most medal events ever in an Olympics: 161 women’s, 165 men’s, and 25 mixed events.
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