Four-time Olympian and marathon pioneer Lorraine Moller has been appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in today’s New Year Honours, recognising her services to athletics.
When she lined up for the first-ever women's Olympic marathon at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, she told 1News she knew the significance went far beyond the race itself.
"You stood on the start line and knew you were making history," she says. "It was more than competing, it was a revolution."
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At the time, women were only just being allowed to race beyond 1500m at the highest level. The Olympic marathon's debut ensured parity in distance events, and Moller — alongside fellow New Zealand trailblazers Anne Audain and Alison Roe — was at the centre of that change, pushing for equal opportunities while continuing to win internationally.
Surprisingly, she said marathon running was never meant to define her career.
"I thought the only people who ran marathons were too slow for track," Moller laughed.
"Track was my first love."
She entered her first marathon as a training run and won it, subsequently winning the next seven.
"The marathon is mentally brutal," she said.
"It's long and it's a grind. But if you're winning, that makes a big difference."
Moller finished fifth in Los Angeles, a result that kept her coming back to the Olympic stage. She would go on to compete in four Games — the only woman to run all four Olympic marathons — finally standing on the podium in Barcelona in 1992, where she won bronze at the age of 37.
"I wasn't giving up until I'd won my medal," she said.
Her fourth and final Olympics came in Atlanta in 1996, closing a career that included 16 international marathon victories. Trained under the Arthur Lydiard endurance method, Moller now works with the Lydiard Foundation, helping to preserve a system she said she considers one of New Zealand's most important sporting legacies.
"When I finished," she said, "women's distance events were competitive, exciting and equal. That's something to be proud of."
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