The Pedestrianism Rage May Have Created The First Female Athletic Superstars

It was seasonably cold, with temperatures hanging in the 20s, as thousands of spectators poured into Cincinnati’s Exposition Hall on Monday morning, 14 February 1876. Once inside, the crowd packed into the stands to watch five days of &hellip; walking. Yes, walking. For a couple of decades in the Nineteenth Century, walking was a major spectator sport, attracting huge crowds and, this being the…