Nina Kuscsik, the first women's division champion in the Boston Marathon, has died at age 86. An obituary for Kuscsik said she "passed away peacefully" on the morning of Sunday, June 8, "after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease and a shorter struggle with respiratory failure."

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.

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.