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.

Nina Kuscsik, who campaigned for women's inclusion in long-distance running and then won the Boston Marathon the first year that they were officially allowed to enter into the race, has died. 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.