About Joan
Joan Benoit Samuelson’s name is synonymous with women’s running. Joanie, as she’s called by many, began running track in high school in the town of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, (where she later founded the highly recognized Beach to Beacon 10k.) Samuelson continued on to Bowdoin College, where her career soared. She received All-American honors in cross-country and track, and won the Boston Marathon in 1979, setting an American and course record, all before she graduated. Samuelson won the Boston Marathon again in 1983, this time breaking the world record. One year later, at the age of 27, she won the gold medal in the first women’s marathon at the Los Angeles Olympics. In 1985, Samuelson won the Chicago Marathon with an American record time of 2:21:21.
Currently, Joanie is a Nike athlete and clinician, conducting numerous running, health, and fitness clinics throughout the United States and the world as well as a spokesperson for Abbott Global Health. Samuelson is an experienced motivational speaker, giving regular addresses to corporations, civic groups, schools, and athletes. She has authored two books, her autobiography Running Tide (Knopf, 1987), and Joan Samuelson’s Running for Women (Rodale Press, 1995). She was inducted into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame in 1998, the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame in 2000, the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2004 and the USATF Masters Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2017, a plaque honoring her was unveiled in the L.A. Memorial Coliseum’s Court of Honor.