Nina Kuscsik has died at the age of 86. Kuscsik campaigned for women’s inclusion in long-distance running and won the Boston Marathon the first year that they were officially allowed to enter into the race.

Nina Kuscsik, who was the first celebrity of women’s marathoning and used her clout to agitate for the first women's Olympic race at that distance in 1984, died June 8 of respiratory failure at her Huntington Station home after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. She was 86.

Overcoming male resistance as a voice for equality, she was the first woman to enter the New York City Marathon and the first official female winner of the Boston race.