New Olympia marker honors women who ran historic 1984 Olympic Marathon Trials
Marathon fans are invited to attend an official marker dedication ceremony in Olympia on Saturday to commemorate the first-ever women’s Olympic Marathon Trials.
The public ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. at Marathon Park, which is located along the southwest shore of Capitol Lake, according to the Olympia Trials Legacy Committee.
The free event will be attended by some of the women who completed the historic 1984 trials as well as local and regional leaders who helped make the trials possible, OTLC President Denise Keegan shared with The Olympian. No women were allowed to run in an Olympic marathon prior to the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. The trials put a spotlight on the state capital and marked a key moment for women’s participation in the sport.
An estimated 50,000 spectators attended the 1984 trials in Olympia, The Olympian previously reported. The crowds watched as Joan Benoit Samuelson crossed the finish line in first place. She went on to win a gold medal in the Olympics that same year.
Former Washington state Supreme Court Justice Gerry Alexander is among the leaders expected to attend the Saturday ceremony, Keegan said. Alexander and former Senator Slade Gorton led a delegation to Philadelphia to pitch Olympia as the host city for the trials, The Olympian previously reported.
The delegation succeeded, and Olympia was chosen over larger cities such as Los Angeles, New York City and Kansas City.
“There is a sports writer in Seattle that shared with me that when Olympia got the bid, it was arguably the biggest bidding upset in the history of the Olympic Games,” Keegan told The Olympian in 2024.
The new marker is a 2 feet by 3 feet porcelain commemorative plaque that lists the names of the women who competed in the 1984 trials, Keegan shared.
The ceremony will be followed by a pasta dinner at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Olympia at 5 p.m. Anyone is welcome. Tickets for the dinner cost $30, according to the OTLC website.
Races for the 45th Capital City Marathon are scheduled to start Sunday morning, per the event website.
