In 1966 Bobby Gibb became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. Now about 60 years later, the incredible accomplishment by Bobby Gibb will forever be memorialized at the start of the Boston Marathon in Hopkinton.
On Friday March 27th an incredible statue of Bobby Gibb sculpted by Bobby Gibb herself and based on her children’s book she wrote entitled “The Girl Who Ran” was welcomed to it’s new home near the Boston Marathon start-line just in front of the Hopkinton Public Library at the West Corner of Main Street.
Bobby Gibb was not only the first woman in history to run and complete the Boston Marathon, she is also an accomplished painter & sculptor who studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in the mid-1960’s.
Two time Boston Marathon champion and winner of the first Olympic marathon for women in 1984, Jean Benoit Samuelson plus a long list of other Boston Marathon champions along with some help coordinating from the 26.2 foundation came together several years ago and helped lead the Bobbi Gibb Marathon sculpture project to raise funds to erect a statue of Gibb on the Boston Marathon course to forever mark Bobby’s legendary record-setting 26.2 mile run that silenced the doubters and showed the world that running Marathons is a Woman’s sport too.
Right now, here’s a look at the ribbon cutting ceremony that officially welcomed a new & amazing historical landmark near the Boston Marathon Start line in it’s official public setting right near the start of it all!
View segment & ceremony below;