Latest Kathrine Switzer Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• Women is out because she's getting in her daily dose of empowerment, freedom and fearlessness. She has put on her freedom wings for 20 minutes or two hours. That's going to make her whole day right and her whole future hold up and seem entirely possible. The sense of her not having any limits, or any restrictions, to me, is so liberating. She doesn't have to prove anything.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Two, Wings, Empowerment

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• I married the right guy later in life. Roger Robinson is just so wonderful but I was 40 and by that time he had been married and had his family. I realized how dangerous children could truly be. So I feel maternal when I see those women run.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Running, Children, Later In Life

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• I don't have any kids of my own, quite by choice. There are two reasons for that. One, I had a sense of obligation for what my life would be and a vision of how to get that accomplished and it didn't include children. It's not that I don't like them, it's just that if you have them, they deserve 100 per cent of your attention.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Children, Kids, Two

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• When I got the women's marathon into the Olympics and we had races all over the world I thought, 'That's great, now we're heading towards total equality.' Then you see that there are women who are still not allowed to drive, get an education, or travel unless they have a male companion or can't carry their passport. There are those who are mired with incredible poverty in North Africa, the mid-east, South East Asia and there's a ridiculous amount of human trafficking.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Race, World, Olympics

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• What I've done in this older part of my life is I started foundation called 261 Fearless, named after my old ,1967 Boston Marathon, bib number.I thought we could create training and a communicative, non-judgmental platform, in a movement to let them know they're not alone. Then fearless women can reach out to help women who are fearful and take that first step using the vehicle of running because it's transformational. It works for every woman every time.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Running, Boston, Numbers

• At the finish line of the 1967 Boston Marathon, one crabby journalist said it was just a one-off deal and women weren't going to run. Only a 20-year-old who had just run a marathon and was shot full of endorphin would say this but I said that there's going to come a day in our lives when women's running is as popular and as men's.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Running, Men, Boston

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• Five years after Boston 1967, I went to the Munich Olympics. I realized that major sponsorship could help me create the opportunity. I wrote a big proposal to Avon cosmetics on how creating a global series of women's races could lead to getting women in the Olympic marathon. People thought I was smoking poppy at the time. The longest event in the Olympic Games was 800m.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Opportunity, Boston, Years

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• I organized this global series of races. The data from those races, along with the tremendous amount of lobbying and meetings with federations, convinced the IOC. We got the women's marathon in the Olympic Games in 1984. That was my dream.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Dream, Race, Data

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• I said that there's going to come a day in our lives when women's running is as popular and as men's. Looking back, I obviously had a great sense of vision. And I was right.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Running, Men, Vision

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• I always say that talent and capability is everywhere, all it needs is opportunity.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Opportunity, Needs, Talent

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• When I finished the Boston race in 1967, there were two things I wanted to do. I wanted to become a better athlete because my first marathon was 4:20. In those days, that was considered a jogging time and I knew people were going to tease me. But I was more fascinated with what women could do if they only had the chance.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Athlete, Two, Race

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• Women were afraid and they would never even imagine running a marathon in 1967.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Running, Marathon, Imagine

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• When I forgave Jock Semple on Heartbreak Hill, I also got really cross with women. I couldn't understand why they didn't get it, why they didn't know that running was so cool and why they weren't in the race as well. Then I thought to myself "How stupid can you be? You've had so much encouragement and motivation and these women haven't."

  Kathrine Switzer

  Running, Encouragement, Motivation

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• Jock Semple and I began appearing at speeches together and he came up to me on the start line in 1973 and planted a big kiss on my cheek. He said in his Scottish brogue: "Come on lass, let's get a wee bit of notoriety." He never said he was sorry but that was his way of saying it, I'm sure.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Sorry, Kissing, Together

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• A picture, of Jock Semple kissed me,appeared in The New York Times the next day after Boston Marathon in 1973, and the caption was "The end of an era."

  Kathrine Switzer

  New York, Next Day, Boston

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• Jock Semple said "Oh the women ran well today the Boston Marathon and they deserve to be in the race." I had to laugh. I said "Well it took us five years but anyway, we're here." It pretty much changed everything.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Race, Boston, Years

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• Jock Semple and I were at daggers drawn for five years, even though I kind of forgave him from the get-go. I knew he was an over-stressed race director, I knew he was protecting his race. It took five years because we had to do our homework - meaning we women - we did our legislative work and we officially got into the Boston Marathon. Then, all was forgiven by Jock Semple.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Race, Boston, Years

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• A lack of forgiveness is a waste of time and it's very enriching to forgive and move on but those are things that come with time.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Moving, Forgiving, Waste

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• I forgave Jock Semple his action on Boston race just around the time I got to Heartbreak Hill. I had 24 miles to go and you cannot run 24 miles and stay angry. That's the truth. When we go out and we're mad at our boss or mad at the world, when we run, we get it out of our system.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Running, Race, Boston

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• I do forgive people when they get it right, even people who in the past I thought were unforgivable.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Past, People, Forgiving

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• Most people don't know this but over the course of time, the official of the race in 1967 in Boston, who attacked me Jock Semple and I became very good friends. That gave me a whole new perspective on forgiveness.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Good Friend, Race, Boston

  Source: runningmagazine.ca

• 1967 race in Boston changed not just my life, but millions of women's lives. There are also things that, when you get older, resonate more.

  Kathrine Switzer

  Race, Boston, Changed