Joan Benoit Samuelson, the 1984 Olympic marathon champion and one of the most influential figures in American running, quietly returned to competition at the 2025 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, finishing in 3:36:11 at age 67.
There was no fanfare, no pre-race announcement, just her name appearing in the official results among more than 53,000 finishers. Samuelson, representing her hometown of Freeport, Maine, ran remarkably even splits, averaging about 8:10 per mile.
Her time placed her fourth in the 65–69 age group, 3,643rd among women, and 14,353rd overall. According to race tracking data, she crossed the halfway mark in 1:47:52, never deviating far from her steady rhythm.
Samuelson’s connection to Chicago runs deep.
She won the 1985 Chicago Marathon in 2:21:21, breaking her own American record and defeating Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway and Rosa Mota of Portugal in one of the greatest women’s marathon fields ever assembled.
That record stood until 2006, when Deena Kastor became the first American woman to break 2:20, running 2:19:36 in London. The 1985 race remains legendary, with Samuelson’s front-running style and fierce duel with Kristiansen epitomizing the fearless spirit that made her an icon of 1980s distance running.
Her legacy was sealed a year earlier in Los Angeles when she won the first-ever women’s Olympic marathon, breaking away early and never looking back. Her victory, 2:24:52 on a sweltering August morning, became one of the defining moments in women’s sports history, symbolizing both progress and endurance.
Decades later, Samuelson has continued to appear at marathons not as an elite contender but as a quiet reminder of what lasting love for the sport looks like.
In 2019, she ran 3:02:20 in Boston at age 61, within 40 minutes of her 1979 winning time of 2:35:15. In 2021, she posted a 1:46 half marathon. Even now, her stride remains efficient, compact, and unmistakably hers, the same form that carried her into the Los Angeles Coliseum more than forty years ago.
There’s something fitting about Samuelson returning to the race where she set the standard for American marathoning. No fanfare, no farewell tour, just another steady, determined 26.2 miles. For a runner who’s always defined greatness by consistency and heart, it was the most Joan Benoit Samuelson thing she could have done.
