Joan Benoit Samuelson pulls out of Chicago Marathon

It looks as though a major icon in women’s running, Joan Benoit Samuelson is not going to be running the Chicago Marathon this weekend. The 58-year-old runner is giving it a miss thanks to a recent stomach bug that has popped up.

Benoit Samuelson is a big name in running. She first became noticed in the running world in 1979 when she entered the Boston Marathon as a fairly unknown runner and won. In 1983, she took home her second gold from Boston.

In 1984, the American runner gave running fans something to be even more excited about. She ran the first ever Olympic women’s marathon in Los Angeles and came in first place running a 2:31:04. The year after, in 1985, she ran Chicago crossing the finish line in 2:21:21 to set the American women’s record in the marathon (the 2:19:36 record is now held by Deena Kastor).

This year, Benoit Samuelson was going to add more hype to the Chicago Marathon by returning to the race to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of her record by running within 30 minutes of her 1985 time. That will no longer happen.

As part of Benoit Samuelson’s post-elite career, she started the TD Beach to Beacon road race which has become quite the popular race among regular runners and elites.

The Chicago Marathon is set to run on Sunday. Runners who want to know what to expect from the race can see here.