Joan Benoit is New/Old American Record-Holder in the Marathon 
POSTED ON 08/27/2011 12:27 PM

According to USATF’s Glenn Latimer, the IAAF has decided that only times run in women’s-only races will count for record purposes in the marathon. As a result, Joan Benoit’s 2:24:52 gold-medal run at the 1984 Olympics is now the American marathon record, because Deena Kastor’s 2:19:36 mark in London in 2006 came in a mixed race (as did Benoit’s 2:21:21 at Chicago in 1985).