Photograph: Denver Post/Getty Images

In 1976, the year that Dr Joan Ullyot published her key book Women’s Running, the longest distance that female athletes were allowed to run in the Olympic Games was 1500m. Men, meanwhile, were free to run the 5,000m, 10,000m and the marathon. Ullyot, who has died aged 80 from cardiac arrest, played a crucial role in the movement that eventually led to profound change.