Reinforcements

Friends and supporters came to her rescue, preventing the official from stopping her from continuing, allowing her to finish the entire race. She didn’t win the marathon but that started the fire in her to run in the same event a total of 7 times after 1967. She continued running in many other marathons, finally winning first place in the 1974 New York City Marathon a full 27 minutes faster than the next woman who finished.

Rena Kanokogi: The Woman who Conquered an All-Male Judo Competition

Rena Kanokogi knew from the time she was a child what she wanted to be: A Judo master, so from the time she was young, the determined woman started training religiously in martial arts, dreaming of one day becoming the world’s no. 1. Young Rena started her foray in to the world of Judo when she was a young girl growing up in Brooklyn in the mid 1900s. By 1950, the skilful Judoka was ready to show the world her prowess but unfortunately, there were no Judo competitions that allowed women to join. Hungry for recognition and validation, she set out to do what no woman dared to…