A women's running oral history project
Starting Line 1928 is an oral history project set out to document the stories of the pioneers of women’s distance running in their own voices.
The first modern Olympics were held in 1896, but women runners were not called to the starting line until 1928. After falsified reports of the women runners collapsing, track and field’s governing body decided to eliminate the 800 meters after one try. That distance wouldn’t return to the Olympic schedule for women until 1960. It wasn’t the first and certainly not the last time the story of women’s running was misconstrued, and athletes’ voices lost.
Passing the baton
With the help of freelance historians, we collect oral histories. We also want to empower our historians to learn new skills and gain experience. We understand it takes time to collect each one of these histories. In return for their time, we want to help them gain experience writing, editing, and other skills associated with podcasting. Hopefully, with this experience, our historians will be able to push their skills further and form a community of women running historians.