The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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32 ■ THE WOLFPACKER she was part of a small group that could com- pete in the inaugural event. Benoit Samuelson took a leave of absence from Boston Univer- sity to dedicate all of her time to training. She won her second Boston Marathon in 1983, beating her previous time by more than 12 minutes and setting a new world record. Her time of 2:22:43 set a course record that would not be beaten for 11 years. However, in the spring of 1984, Benoit Samuelson suffered a debilitating knee injury while training for the U.S. Women's Olympic Marathon Trials. "The day I actually felt something unravel on the lateral side of my knee was March 17, St. Patrick's Day," Benoit Samuelson recalled. "I said, well, this isn't very lucky." Cortisone injections and massage therapy quickly led to dead ends due to the severity of the injury. With less than three weeks to go before the trials, she underwent arthroscopic surgery as a last-ditch effort. The procedure was successful and her re- covery went quicker than expected. She went on to win the trial run in Olympia, Wash., by 30 seconds with a time of 2:31:04. "I really had to work on developing pace in the strength and stability of my knees," Benoit Samuelson said. "It was a quick turnaround. I think that by getting to the starting line in Olympia and winning that trial, that should have sent the message to all my competitors in L.A. that I wanted to get out there for a reason." Three months later, she was set to com- pete in the Los Angeles games against global distance-running superstars Grete Waitz, Rosa Mota and Ingrid Kristiansen. "I didn't know what to expect," Benoit Samuelson admitted. "I didn't even know if anybody was going to be at the Coliseum. I said that morning, I wonder if anybody's going to be in there because who really cares about a bunch of women running 26.2 miles? "I heard the crowd on its feet inside the Coliseum before I went into the tunnel. There was thunderous noise and there were a lot of people. I don't think there was an empty seat. I looked up at the crowd and I had to immedi- ately look down at my feet to make sure that I didn't trip with all the excitement." The realization that she could shatter a glass ceiling with the opportunity before her was not absent from her mind the morning of the race. "In the darkness of that tunnel, I asked my- self if I was really capable of coming out into the light on the other side of the tunnel with the mantle of being the first woman to win the Olympic marathon," Benoit Samuelson re- membered. "I quickly decided that if I wasn't, I would figure it out in a hurry and get to the finish line." She kept the pace of her opponents in the opening miles while fighting back nerves, but a combination of adrenaline and competitive spirit quickly took over. "I wasn't running my own race, I was run- ning their race," Benoit Samuelson said. "I had to get out of the pack — I had to go and run, and that's what I did. Apparently, the press went nuts thinking I had made this huge error so early in the race because I jumped out to a big lead. "I still had a lot in me, but it was getting pretty hot and humid in the latter stages of the race. I was keeping something in reserve be- cause I kept thinking that Greta, Ingrid, Rosa or somebody would come back on me — they just never did." Benoit Samuelson crossed the finish line several hundred meters ahead of her com- petitors in a time of 2:24:52 to become the first-ever gold medal winner in the women's marathon at the Olympics. Five years after her first life-changing win at the 1979 Boston Marathon, Benoit Samu- elson saw her fame skyrocket to a whole new level. Endorsement deals and appearance re- quests predictably flooded in, but she never truly embraced the global celebrity she had earned. To her, competing in the Olympics was just about her passion for the sport. "People thought I was crazy when I passed up an opportunity to do something with Mc- Donald's and Jif peanut butter," Benoit Samu- elson said. "I didn't use the products. I've always been true to myself and to my heart. I use natural peanut butter and I didn't frequent McDonald's, so I was being true to myself." She married her husband, Scott, one month after winning her gold medal and went on to set a career-best time of 2:21:21 in a first-place finish at the Chicago Marathon in 1985, an American record that stood for 18 years. She rode the wave of her Olympic success through the late 1980s before starting a family at the turn of the decade. She has two children, daughter Abby and son Anders, who both be- came competitive runners themselves. Benoit Samuelson noted she hasn't had a job description since her professional com- petition years, but she has managed to stay busy ever since. To this day she continues to do consulting work for Nike on things such as product design, sustainability, women's issues and climate change. She also founded the TD Beach To Beacon 10K race in 1998 in her hometown of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, which has become one of the top competitive road races in the country and had been held annually ever since until this year, when it was canceled because of COVID-19 concerns. Benoit Samuelson has also continued to run marathons ever since her last top-five finish at the Boston Marathon in 1991 (fourth). In 2019, she won her age group at the Boston Marathon with a time of 3:04:00, and she doesn't plan on hanging it up anytime soon. "I've had this goal of trying to run a sub- three-hour marathon in my fifth decade of marathoning," Benoit Samuelson said. "I ran a 3:02 last September, but that wouldn't have counted since it was just short of my fifth decade. Whether or not I run it under three, I still want to run one more marathon in my fifth decade." ■ Benoit Samuelson still runs competitively and won her age group at the 2019 Boston Marathon with a mark that was within 30 minutes of her victorious time 40 years earlier, in the 1979 event. PHOTOS COURTESY NIKE