This week Women's Running Stories is taking a break and bringing you an episode of Starting Line 1928. This outstanding podcast features in-depth interviews with women running pioneers. The episode I chose features Cheryl Toussaint, the meet director of the Colgate Women’s Games and an Olympic silver medalist.

Toussaint grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and began running with the Atoms Track Club at age 13. There, Coach Fred Thompson nurtured her athletic talent—and encouraged her academically. Cheryl earned an academic scholarship to New York University and kept training with the Atoms, eventually making the Olympics in 1972; she competed in Munich in the 800 meters and 4x400 relay, where she helped the team make the final—and eventually, win silver—despite losing a shoe. She also began assisting Thompson with his other venture, the Colgate Women’s Games, and took over as meet director when he retired in 2014. It’s the longest running track and field series for girls and young women in the United States, open to all young women from elementary school through college and beyond, and has launched the careers of many other Olympians and successful women in other fields. 

Starting Line 1928 is an oral history project dedicated to preserving the stories of women pioneers in distance running. The project chronicles the individuals who paved the way for a post-Title IX world. Guests have included Olympians (like here), steeplechase pioneers, ultrarunning champions, coaches, and those who fought hard for women to have new opportunities in the sport.

Starting Line 1928 was founded in 2020 by Cindy Kuzma, Cara Hawkins-Jedlicka, Freddi Carlip, and Johanna Gretschel and is supported by the Theodore Corbitt Institute for Running History Research.

Learn More about Starting Line 1928

Website: StartingLine1928.com

Instagram @startingline1928

Twitter @startline1928

Email: [email protected]

Learn More about the Colgate Women's Games

Website: colgatewomensgames.com

Listen to the Live Episode featuring the Native Women Run team and NWR Founder Verna Volker

womensrunningstories.com/live-event-native-women-run-team-at-the-2024-chicago-marathon-expo