Courtsey of Bowdoin Athletics

When former Olympic marathoner Joan Benoit Samuelson ’79 reflects on her achievements, she is acutely aware of how different things could have been.

“Had soccer been available to me in high school, I wouldn’t be here talking to you,” Samuelson said. “But it wasn’t an opportunity for me.”

A lifetime competitor, Samuelson never shied away from athletic opportunities. She remembers hanging on the chain link fences outside of her brothers’ Little League baseball games, begging to get into the game when players got injured.

“They’d never let me play. I think that added fuel to the fire, just wanting to participate,” Samuelson said.

Without the opportunity to pursue soccer or baseball, Samuelson grew up skiing competitively and playing field hockey. It was only years later at the College that Samuelson decided to specialize in running, a decision that ended up being more important than she could ever imagine.

In 1984, Samuelson won the gold medal for the United States in the Olympic Games’  inaugural women’s marathon event. Her performance was a globally defining image for women’s long-distance running, a triumphant display in Los Angeles that cemented the sport’s legacy and paved the way for future generations of women.

Nine years before earning Olympic gold and three short years after Title IX banned gender-based discrimination in school activities, Samuelson started her first year at the College.

“My dad [André Benoit ’43] was an alum, my older brothers went to Bowdoin [Peter Benoit ’76 and John Benoit ’81] and women were now accepted. So, I applied early and got in,” Samuelson said.

Tennis and field hockey were the only sports available to women at the College after Title IX, and Samuelson took advantage of the opportunity, playing on the field hockey team for her first two years of college.

One weekend, the field hockey team had a packed schedule of competition. Friday evening, the team played Brown University in Providence, traveling to Kingston to take on the University of Rhode Island on Saturday morning. The team had Sunday off before playing up in Waterville against Colby College on Monday.

“But there was a half marathon in Portland on Sunday and one of the best long-distance female New England runners was running in that race,” Samuelson said.

Samuelson beat the other runner, a friend of hers to this day, and showed up to play against Colby despite having run 13.1 miles the day before.

However, her sore legs from the race led to her being benched at halftime, and she never played another minute of varsity field hockey again.

“I finished out the season on JV, wanting to finish what I started. Then at the same time, I was also running AAU [Amateur Athletic Union] cross-country events,” Samuelson said.

As Samuelson shifted her focus to running, coaches began to take notice and offers rolled in for her to compete on some of the first Title IX track scholarships. Samelson ultimately chose to explore an offer at North Carolina State University (NC State).

“The [NC State] coach was from New England, and I just thought he could understand my psyche and everything about persevering through winter weather,” Samuelson said.

Samuelson spent three semesters at NC State before returning to the College in 1979. By that time, she was regarded as one of the top runners in the country, but she wanted to come back and finish her Bowdoin education. She was able to run for the new track and cross country teams that had started while she was at school in Raleigh.

Courtsey of Bowdoin Athletics

“Lynn Ruddy did a great job. She was a brand new coach [for Bowdoin] at the time, and we still remain friendly today,” Samuelson said.

Due to Bowdoin’s residency requirement, Samuelson had to complete two more semesters of school, something that annoyed her at the time. These days, she looks back on those semesters fondly as a time when she took formative classes and spent time with her future husband, Scott Samuelson ’80.

“Everything happens for a reason. You always have to look for the silver lining,” Samuelson said.

Samuelson took filmmaking, acting, public speaking and African American studies classes during her last semester with professors she learned a lot from.

“[My classes] were all very pertinent to what I went on to do, which is still trying to figure out what I’m going to do with my life,” Samuelson said.

While completing her final semester at the College, Samuelson won the 1979 Boston Marathon, setting a new course record as a college student.

“I didn’t really tell a lot of people I was going to Boston to run, and I remember coming back that Tuesday night. I walked into what is now Thorne Dining Hall and everybody got up and gave me a standing ovation. It was like, ‘How did they know I went to Boston?’ I just felt so warm,” Samuelson said.

As she thinks back on the sport that took her all over the globe, Samuelson credits the College and the Maine running community with helping her succeed and nurturing the traits she carries through life.

Samuelson remembers running through the tunnel in Los Angeles with a commanding lead, wondering if she could handle the responsibility of winning the first women’s Olympic marathon.

“‘Are you capable of carrying the mantle that will accompany winning the first women’s marathon?’ And I had nanoseconds to think about that, and I said: ‘You’ll figure it out. You went to Bowdoin. You’ll figure it out,’” Samuelson said.