Silvia Ruegger, Pioneer of Women's Running

On September 11, 1976, 15-year-old Silvia Ruegger sat in her bedroom writing a note. It read: I will represent Canada at the Olympic Games. She then took the note and tucked it underneath the floorboards where no one else could see it. Eight years later at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Ruegger became one of fifty women to race at the very first women’s marathon of the Olympic Games and a pioneer of women’s running. On this week’s episode of The Shakeout, we look at how one of the greatest moments in Canadian running history started with a handwritten note hidden underneath the floor of an old farmhouse.