Sue Reynolds was a teenager growing up as the women’s rights movement was gaining momentum and before the passage of Title IX laws. Decades later, she would gain international fame for losing 200 pounds after taking up triathlon at age 65. Across the Line shares the story of Sue Reynolds’ remarkable transformation into a world champion, revealing Olympic-level training methods and elite coaching techniques. In this excerpt, Reynolds shares what it was like to be a girl playing sports in the years before Title IX.
“Girls’ PE” appeared on my seventh-grade class schedule for third period. Genders were separated for physical education at that time due to the era’s prevailing ideas about the physical activities that were “appropriate” for girls versus boys. Girls participated in activities focused on rhythmic and graceful movement while boys participated in sports. In the passing time before third period, I walked to the home economics room to square dance with the girls while the boys went to the gym to play basketball.
A year later, when I was in eighth grade, things began to change. I had an amazing PE teacher who took us to the gym and did baseline testing of our mobility, coordination, and strength. Then she provided opportunities for us to improve in those areas and told us that anyone who improved would receive an A for the class—a grade that was usually reserved for only the most athletic girls. I was motivated by her approach and worked my tail off week after week to earn an A.
High School Girls Basketball in the 1960s
One day in ninth grade, our PE teacher asked us to sit on the gym floor. Once we were seated, she told us we were going to learn basketball. Basketball?! We all looked at each other—nervous and excited. She explained the rules for girls’ basketball, which were different from boys’ basketball because officials thought girls’ bodies couldn’t withstand certain physical demands, like running the full length of the court or fighting for a rebound. We noted a touch of sarcasm in her voice and felt like she was letting us in on a little secret. Girls could play sports.
Our teacher explained that while boys had five players on the court, girls had six players. To keep the girls from having to run the full length of the court, the six girls were divided into two groups— three forwards who are confined to the frontcourt and could shoot the ball, and three guards who were restricted to the backcourt and focused on defense. And with those rules to keep us “safe,” we played basketball in the gym during PE like the boys—but also not like the boys.
After playing basketball for a few weeks, our PE teacher sat us down on the gym floor again, and with great excitement, she told us there would be a girls’ basketball game between our school and the middle school from across town. It would be the first time in our area that a girls’ team from one school competed against a girls’ team from another school—in any sport. “We will be making history,” she said. Then, after class, she pulled me aside and encouraged me to try out for the team.
I use the word “team” loosely. There were only two practices. We didn’t have uniforms, so we wore our PE outfits—a flamingo-pink jumpsuit that everyone hated. We didn’t have a team bus, so our mothers drove us to the game. There were no cheerleaders, so our moms stood on the sidelines of the gym and yelled their hearts out.
Our moms seemed to be just as excited as our PE teacher about this historic game. After all, they had been victims of gender bias all of their lives. Except for teaching and nursing, most jobs weren’t available for women. They weren’t allowed to apply for a mortgage or a credit card. I suspect they saw our game as a huge step forward for women and were thrilled to see their daughters receiving opportunities that had not been available to them.
Myths About Women, Girls, and Sports
It was a confusing time for all of us. While my mother gave me a football for Christmas and drove me to the historic basketball game, she also struggled with other aspects of women in sports. For example, she discouraged me from swimming butterfly because that stroke would give me big shoulders. She told me that I’d appear masculine and no man would want to marry me.
She also told me that sports made women sterile, unable to have children. And when Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in tennis, my mom thought Billie Jean was a man disguised as a woman. I did too.
During my high school years, the movement around women’s rights was ramping up. Women were fighting for rights in all sorts of areas, not just sports. They pushed for equal pay in the workforce, reproductive rights, legal and financial independence, political representation, and protection against domestic violence and sexual assault.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed cititzens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead
It was an interesting time to be a teenage girl evolving into a woman. Every day on the TV news, we saw images of demonstrations where women advocated for the passage of Title IX—and many burned their bras. Each one of us had to figure out where we stood on everything from going braless to letting men open doors for us. I participated in a walkout at my school where we all stood up in the middle of a class period, left the building, and marched to the administration building about a mile away to demand that we be allowed to wear pants to school.
Boston Marathon officials: “Women cannot run more than 800 meters.”
Two stories around the Boston Marathon touched me profoundly. In 1966, Bobbi Gibb was told that she could not enter the race because she was a woman. The officials explained that women did not have the physical capability to run more than 800 meters. Determined to run in the race, Bobbi hid in the bushes near the start line and then sneaked into the crowd of runners after the starting gun blasted, wearing a hoodie so people would not realize she was a woman.
Similarly in 1967, Kathrine Switzer entered the Boston Marathon by using only the first initial of her first name on the registration form. When word got out that a female was racing, an official tried to remove Kathrine from the race by grabbing her bib number and attempting to shove her out. But men running alongside her pushed the official away.
These stories and others like them taught me as a high school student that I was entitled to compete in sports and served as an example of how women—and the men who support them—can stand up for what is right.
Women’s Rights Was a Grassroots Movement
Gibb and Switzer are famous for their courage to compete in a man’s world, but the women’s rights movement was truly a grassroots movement, fueled by all the girls, moms, and female teachers who rallied when called to open the door and pave the way for themselves and all who came behind them. When I observe the battles being fought for women today in sports, I see the same kind of heroes.
Looking back, I know those early years on the sidelines shaped me more than I ever understood at the time. Being the girl on the leading edge of a movement taught me persistence, self-belief, and how to keep moving forward even when the world said no. I didn’t have words for it then, but my sense of grit was already forming, the same grit that would later enable me to push through hard workouts and tough triathlons decades later.
Explore Across the Line
In Across the Line, Sue Reynolds shares a story-driven case study of her transformation into a world champion triathlete.
Reynolds gained fame for losing 200 pounds after taking up triathlon at age 65. In this sequel to her debut bestseller, Reynolds shares her single-minded pursuit of performance, revealing Olympic-level training methods, elite coaching techniques, Overtraining Syndrome, and the dark side of personal ambition.
How good can you be? How hard can you push? Across the Line reveals truths about human limits and shares lessons on balancing joy and the pursuit of excellence.