Joan Benoit Samuelson, a gold medallist at the 1984 Olympic marathon, will be the special guest at next month’s Bermuda Marathon Weekend.

Benoit Samuelson, who competed in the International Race Weekend in the late-1970s, and placed second in the 1978 marathon, sparked what one writer called a “women’s running renaissance” when she became the first women’s Olympic marathon champion in Los Angeles in a time of two hours, 24 minutes and 52 seconds.

Now 56 and no longer running competitively, Benoit Samuelson had a documentary made on her running career by Nike that will be screened at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess on the Thursday (January 16) before the start of the weekend’s races.

Benoit Samuelson was born in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, of French and Irish ancestry and took to long-distance running to assist her recovery from a broken leg suffered while slaloming.

She entered the 1979 Boston Marathon as a relative unknown and won the race in 2:25:15 wearing a Boston Red Sox cap and knocking eight minutes off the course record.

Benoit repeated that success with victory again in 1983, taking more than two minutes off the world’s best time, set by another regular visitor to Bermuda, Grete Waitz, in the London Marathon just the day before. Her Boston course record of 2:22:43 set 30 years ago was not broken for another 11 years.

Benoit Samuelson also set the American record at the Chicago Marathon in 1985, running a time of 2:21:21 that stood for 18 years.

Since her retirement from competitive running, Benoit Samuelson has written books, including Running Tide and Running for Women and has opened a running clinic.

She was also a coach to women’s cross-country and long-distance athletes and is a motivational speak and sports commentator.

Other special guests during the Marathon Weekend will be Bart Yasso, the chief running officer for Runners World magazine, who will speak during the pasty party function on the Saturday at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess, and Geoff Smith, a two-times Bermuda Marathon champion, who was a special guest at this year’s marathon weekend. He still holds the 10K record of 28:14 set in 1982.

Next month’s races, from January 17 to 19, will be the 39th annual since starting in 1975 (no event in 1976) and will have KPMG, HSBC and Bermuda Department of Tourism as three of the main sponsors.

“We’re trying to get the last pieces together,” said Anthony Raynor, the race director for the Marathon, half-marathon and 10K races.

“We’re about where we were last year at this time.

‘We’re looking forward to locals registering, hopefully before December 31, which is the regular deadline. Then there will be a late registration period.

“The mile trials a couple of weeks ago were an important benchmark for us. After 39 years, this is a very significant event.”