Significant strides: Women’s advancement in endurance sports

In a break with tradition, the culminating event of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be the women’s marathon, not the men’s. Women have come a long way over the last century in being able to participate – and smash records – in endurance sports such as marathons, ultra-marathons, long-distance cycling and swimming, and triathlons. Claire McKay Bowen explores what has helped, and hindered, them along the way