Nina Kuscsik

Nina Kuscsik, women's sports pioneer and the first official female winner of the Boston Marathon, died June 8, 2025, of respiratory failure in New York at the age of 86, after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

Kuscsik never met a boundary she would not push. An early high school graduate who then attended and graduated from nursing school at 18, she pushed for a rules change that allowed her to get her nursing license at 18 rather than the then-mandated 21. For 40 years, she practiced at Brooklyn Hospital and then at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. But Kuscsik is better known for her accomplishments in sports. Already a state champion in three sports by her teen years – bicycle racing, ice speed skating, and roller skating – she took up long-distance running in the 1960s and quickly excelled.

In 1970, she was the only woman to run the first ever New York City Marathon. The next year, she was the second woman to finish a marathon in under three hours, and in 1972, she was the female winner of both the Boston Marathon (the first ever woman to officially win) and the New York City Marathon. For good measure, she won the NYC Marathon in 1973, too. Over the course of her life, she ran over 80 marathons overall, in 1977 set the U.S. record for a 50-mile run, and won the Empire State Building Run-Up three straight years in the late 1970s and early '80s. For her accomplishments, Kuscsik is in the Long Distance Running Hall of Fame and the New York Road Runners Hall of Fame, among many other honors.

The Boston Athletic Association expressed condolences on the social media platform X, writing: "To us, she was a friend who will always be remembered for her kindness. Nina held the distinct honor of winning the 1972 Boston Marathon, & recognized the platform that came with that moment, inspiring thousands of women to reach their own goals & finish lines in decades since."

By Eric San Juan

(Image: Rob Loud/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)