Joan Benoit Samuelson turns 60, wants to break three hours for marathon
1984 Olympic marathon gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson turned 60 years old on Tuesday and hopes to become the first woman in her 60s to break three hours for the marathon, according to Runner's World.
The current record for the 60-64 age group is 3:01:30 from 2010 and run by New Zealand's Bernie Portenski.
Samuelson previously held the world record in the marathon, when she ran 2:22:43 for the win at the 1983 Boston Marathon and then 2:21:21 at the 1985 Chicago Marathon. She remains the third-fastest American marathoner of all-time behind Deena Kastor and Shalane Flanagan.
Samuelson planned to run the 2015 Chicago Marathon to celebrate the 30th anniversary of her victory. She scratched from the race due to an illness. She could make a return to Chicago this fall.
Before her race in 2015, she joked to SI: "If I were to run a sub-3:00 marathon in 2020, I think I’d be the first person to do that across five decades. Who knows? I’m just happy to get on the starting line here.”
Samuelson will run several road races in the summer before possibly racing the Chicago Marathon, according to Runner's World. She was most recently spotted holding the finish line tape at the Nike sub-two hour marathon attempt in Monza, Italy, where Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge ran 2:00:25.
