In 1972, only 8 women ran the race. Today, 12,100 are running.

For 76 years, men were the only athletes permitted to have their “vital statistics” — their race times — recorded in the running of the Boston Marathon. Women were prohibited from running the route because race organizers considered them “physiologically incapable.”

And then came 1972.

“In a move that officials hope will not offend more militant liberationists, a separate but equal category will be established for women competitors,” The New York Times reported.

Nina Kuscsik, 33, of Huntington, N.Y., became the first woman to win the Boston Marathon, completing the 26.2-mile race in 3 hours 10 minutes 26 seconds. Seven others joined her in the inaugural women’s competition.

“It’s a great honor,” Kuscsik told The Times after completing the race. “I hope that allowing women to compete officially will encourage others to take running more seriously.”

Later that fall, she would be one of the first women to run the New York City Marathon.

At the time, the inclusion of women was “very much an experiment,” Will Cloney, then the race director, told The Times. Today, 12,171 women are racing in a field of 28,600 participants.

The addition of women at the Boston Marathon coincided with a wave of women’s rights initiatives. On March 22, 1972, about a month before the marathon, Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment and, a few months later, enacted Title IX, which prohibits sex and gender discrimination in schools. (The Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would guarantee equal rights for all Americans regardless of sex, has still not been ratified.)

To mark the 50th anniversary, a team of eight women will be participating in honor of the original eight finishers. Among them are Valerie Rogosheske, who ran the race in 1972 and placed in the top 10 of the Boston Marathon three times; Manuela Schär, one of the world’s best wheelchair racers; Sarah Fuller, the first woman to play in a Power 5 college football game; Kristine Lilly, a longtime U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team player; and Verna Volker, an activist who works to increase visibility of Native American runners.

While women were officially welcomed to compete in 1972, it was far from the first time women had run the race. Roberta Gibb broke the race’s gender barrier in 1966. To conceal her gender, Gibb wore a large blue sweatshirt and hid behind forsythia bushes near the start line. She completed the course in 3:21:40.