The greatest Olympic athlete from every U.S. state

Maine: Joan Benoit Samuelson

Sport: Marathon

Olympics: Los Angeles 1984

Up until 1984, the marathon was not an Olympic sport for women. The longest distance that women could compete in was 1,500 meters. When that rule change, Joan Benoit Samuelson was there to blaze a trail for women’s distance running. In 1983, Samuelson won the Boston Marathon and set a world record with a time of under two hours and twenty-three minutes. She qualified for the Olympics in dominating fashion even though she was running on an injured knee. She was forced to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery a mere 17 days before the trials were to be held and overcame that hurdle. After safely qualifying, she faced another significant test in a rival runner from Norway, Grete Waitz.

Samuelson was one of the favorites to win the event at the Olympics, but she also faced the challenge of knowing that Waitz had defeated her 10 of the previous 11 times they had raced in the same event. Samuelson defeated her rival and others to become the first woman to win a gold medal as a marathon runner in the Olympic Games. Her time in the Olympics remains the record and she also retains the record for the Chicago Marathon.

After her Olympic glory, Samuelson remained a competitive distance runner and was inducted into the Manie Women’s Hall of Fame in 2000 and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2004. She also competed in the Olympic trials after she had turned 50, which is a remarkable accomplishment for an athlete that age.

Honorable Mention: Edmund “Rip” Black, track and field in Amsterdam 1928