Nina Kuscsik

Nina Kuscsik ( born January 2, 1939) is an American pioneer of the marathon for women.

In 1967, she began the sport of running. Since women participating in long distance races was denied at the time by association rules, she ran unannounced in 1969 in the Boston Marathon and took 3:46 hours for the route.

For further unofficial start in the following year she came to Boston in 3:12:16 and the Yonkers Marathon in 3:16:02 finish. In September she was the only female participant at the premiere of the New York City Marathon, but was in poor health and did not reach the target. In October, the Road Runners Club of America held a few internals Championship, in which women were admitted. Kuscsik was second in 3:15:07 behind Sara Mae Berman.

In 1971 she ran for the third time unofficially in Boston and improved to 3:09:00 h In the second edition of the New York City Marathon for the first time in a competition of women, the three- hour mark undercut; However Kuscsik had in second in 2:56:04 the owner of the world record Beth Bonner admit defeat, triumphed in 2:55:22.

In 1972, in Boston first admitted women. Kuscsik won in 3:10:26 and had this year in New York City in the lead. In 1973, she was in Boston Second and won again in New York City. In 1974 she finished fifth at the premiere of the U.S. Marathon Championship for women and third in Boston. In the Ernst van Aaken organized specifically for women International Marathon in Waldniel she placed eighth. In 1976 she was the inaugural run as City New York City Marathon seventh. In 1977, she was third in the U.S. Championships with her personal best of 2:50:22, set on 5 November in New York City with 6:35:53 h a U.S. record over 50 miles ( 80.5 kilometers ) and was fourth at the Honolulu Marathon.

In the following years, she turned to cycling and the flight of stairs. From 1979 to 1981, she won three times in a row at the Empire State Building Run -Up.

She was inducted into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame in 1999.

Nina Kuscsik is a nurse and works as a patient counselor at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. She has authored numerous articles on women's running sport for professionals and fitness magazines; besides, she was instrumental in helping to change the official association rules in order to enable women to participate equally in long- distance running and to make women's marathon at an Olympic discipline. She is a member of various committees for the long-distance running of USA Track & Field and belonged to the board of the New York Road Runners. The divorced mother of three who lives in Huntington.

Publications

• The History of Women's Participation in the marathon. In: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Volume 301, October 1977, pp. 862-876 ( doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1977.tb38253.x )