Better Faster Farther

For readers of The National Team, Good and Mad, and Born to Run, as well as feminist histories like Fly Girls, this edge-of-your-seat, virtually unknown story by award-winning sports journalist Maggie Mertens tells how women broke into competitive running over the last century, getting faster and fiercer with every race and changing our understanding of gender and power in one of America's most popular pastimes-and beyond.

The 2024 Olympics in Paris will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first time women were permitted to compete in an Olympic marathon-88 years after the first modern men's Olympic marathon. In fact, 2024 also marks 88 years since the first woman ran in that very race. She just did it without permission.

Mertens transports us to that first boundary-breaking marathon in Greece, 1896, which Stamata Revithi successfully finished, to the earliest sanctioned women's races of the 20th century to the passing of Title IX and into the present, showing how time and again, despite women proving their abilities on the track, men in the medical establishment, media, and athletic associations fought to keep women (or at least white women) fragile-and sometimes literally tried to push them out of the race (see Bobbi Gibb, Boston Marathon, 1966). Women ran barefoot or in nursing shoes, since there were no women's running shoes. They ran without sports bras, which weren't invented until 1977, or competed disguised as men. They faced down quack science, doctors who put them on bedrest, and newspaper reports that said women simply collapsed if they ran a mere 800 meters, and, still today, face relentless attention to their physical bodies: Is she too strong, too masculine; is she even a woman? And these questions have consequences, as some women are now banned from competition due to similar outdated concepts of gender and biology.

Better Faster Farther takes us inside the lives, the races, the victories of the women who changed society's perception of what women can do and how biology really influences athletics. And with this empowering narrative, we are reminded that today, in spite of ongoing sexism in the running world, women continue to run, and win-and the race has only just begun.

"A fascinating deep dive into the myth of gender roles that set limitations on women's participation in athletics... This insightful, well-researched book captures the struggles of female athletes who blazed a path for all who run in their footsteps, proving sports can, indeed, be a positive vehicle for social change."--Booklist, Starred Review
"Chronicling these women's relentless pursuit of inclusion in competitive running events, Mertens regains control of the narrative of female runners--and female athletes more broadly... Illuminating, informative, and inspiring."--Kirkus Reviews
"An essential and necessary history of a subject that has not just been overlooked, but often overtly and purposely ignored."--Glenn Stout, author of Young Woman and the Sea
"Delightful and enraging, Better Faster Farther traces the centuries-long lineage of women who wanted to run and became feminist heroes. Mertens expertly reveals the long history of sexism and misogyny that is very much alive today in women's athletics and across society. This book is for anyone interested in how our understanding of human biology is shaped as much by story as by science."--Chelsea Conaboy, author of Mother Brain: How Neuroscience Is Rewriting the Story of Parenthood
"With her evocative prose and ever-present attention to detail, Maggie Mertens has written a much-needed examination of women's running. Better Faster Farther is a blistering examination of how sexism, racism, and transphobia have so deeply impacted a sport that should be the ultimate democratizer. This book has the potential to change the sport as we know it."--Frankie de la Cretaz, co-author of Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League
"A meticulously researched examination of the history of women's competitive running, with valuable takeaways for athletes of all sports." --Bonnie Tsui, author of Why We Swim and Sarah and the Big Wave
"Better Faster Farther traces the history of scrutiny over women's bodies and capabilities as runners at the intersections of race, gender identity, and sex development making clear just how little we actually know (and care to know) about them. An essential read to normalize women's existence, excellence and humanity within the sport of running."--Alison Mariella Désir, author Running While Black
"From foot-binding to corsets, patriarchal societies have found ways to immobilize women, but now, marathoners and Olympians are proving that women can run like the wind!" --Gloria Steinem
"It is hard and frustrating--and ultimately inspiring--to read about how women have continually been dismissed throughout our sport's history. This book shows and credits so many of them, who hurdled roadblocks and continued to fight for their place. Better Faster Farther is a look behind the curtain that all women who love running and sport should read."--Kara Goucher, Olympic runner and New York Times-bestselling author of The Longest Race

Maggie Mertens is a writer, journalist, and editor located in Seattle. Her essays and reporting have appeared in The Atlantic, NPR, Sports Illustrated, ESPNw, Deadspin, VICE, The Cut, Glamour, Pacific Standard, Refinery29, and Creative Nonfiction, among others. Her work has also appeared in The Year's Best Sports Writing 2021 (Triumph Books), Women and Sports in the United States (The University of Chicago Press), and has been nominated for the 2021 Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting. She earned a B.A. in English Literature and Italian Studies from Smith College, and an M.F.A. in Creative-Nonfiction Writing from The New School.

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