A pioneer distance runner, author, and medical physician, Joan Ullyot's expertise and lobbying helped open doors for women in running. Notably, her efforts helped changed the minds of the IAAF and IOC, who had previously clung to an archaic view that that the sport was detrimental to a woman’s health.A 1961 graduate of Wellesley College, Ullyot is an accomplished runner herself, having finished the Boston Marathon ten times, winning the masters title there in 1984. Additionally, she is the only woman to run in every women’s international marathon championships, held in Waldniel, West Germany (1974, 1976, 1979) and she set a PR of 2:47:39 in winning the St. George Marathon in 1988 at age 48However, her biggest contributions to the sport came off the race course. In the early 1980s, her research on the sport’s impact on women was presented to the IOC by the organizing committee for the Los Angeles Olympics, leading to a vote to include the women’s marathon in the 1984 Games. Additionally, Ullyot’s work as a writer both through her regular columns in Runner’s World and Women’s Sports & Fitness magazines and her books, Women’s Running, and Running Free helped an unknown number of aspiring participants in the sport. Ullyot was a member of the Advisory Board for the Melpomene Institute, an organization focused research projects on behalf of female athletes, and served on the International Runners Committee, seeking parity for women distance runners in the Olympic Games and all international competition.