Nina Kuscsik, Women's Distance Running Pioneer and Legend

Nina Kuscsik, a pioneer in women’s distance running and a lifelong advocate for women’s participation in sports, died on June 8 at age 86. She broke barriers for herself and countless others with her accomplishments and decades of advocacy.

Born in 1939, Nina had an active childhood growing up in Brooklyn, playing stickball, stoopball, basketball, and other sports and going to Jacob Riis Park. In her late teens she became a state champion in bicycle racing, roller skating, and ice speed skating.

She took up running while raising three children as a single mom and started participating in New York Road Runners races as one of a small handful of women participants.

Nina ran the 1969 Boston Marathon unofficially, as the race didn’t recognize women finishers at the time. In 1970, encouraged by Fred Lebow and Vince Chiappetta, she was the only woman to participate in the first New York City Marathon, but she had to drop out due to illness.

At the 1972 New York City Marathon, Kuscsik and five other women lined up at the start in Central Park. When the gun went off, they sat down in protest of the women’s separate start. After the press got their story, the women stood up and started running. Kuscsik won the race in 3:08:41 (pictured at top) and returned in 1973 to successfully defend her title. She was also the Boston Marathon champion in 1972, the first year women ran Boston officially.

Working with Lebow and Kathrine Switzer, in 1972 Nina co-founded the Crazylegs Mini Marathon, the world’s original women-only road race, now the Mastercard New York Mini 10K. Seventy-two women finished the first race, and three weeks later, Title IX was signed into law, guaranteeing girls and women the right to participate in school sports and creating new opportunities for generations of women athletes.

She ran her fastest marathon in 1977, finishing with a time of 2:50:22. That year she also set an American record for 50 miles, running 6:35:53 at the NYRR 50-Mile in Central Park.

Nina lobbied the Amateur Athletic Union for many years to increase women’s access to longer race distances. She worked tirelessly with Switzer and others to bring the women’s marathon to the Olympics, which finally happened in 1984 in Los Angeles.

For her many triumphs and contributions to the sport of running, Nina was inducted into the NYRR Hall of Fame in 2012.

In 2021 she held the tape for the women’s champion at the 50th running of the New York City Marathon.

In 2022 she was part of the celebration of the 50th Mini 10K; she's pictured below, on the right, with Kathrine Switzer.

That year she also she received the Abebe Bikila Award, presented annually by NYRR to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the sport of distance running.

“I am very proud,” she said at the time. “It was such a long time ago when I was advocating for more opportunities in women’s running; it just seemed like the right thing to do. It is so wonderful to see the results of it all today.”