Women's Little 500

The Women's Little 500 is a bicycle race held annually at Bill Armstrong Stadium on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington. The race is modelled after the men's Little 500. The race has been run the Friday before the men's race, since its conception in 1988. It consists of half the distance of the men's race: 100 laps (25.49 miles) around the quarter-mile cinder track (410-meters) at the Bill Armstrong Stadium. Racers usually compete in teams of four, but teams can be as few as two, as long as that was the number of team members with which they qualified for the race. These teams usually have a common bond such as living in the same residence hall or being members of the same sorority, or they simply are an independent group with common interests. Each team is only given two bikes on which to ride and therefore, must compete in a relay-style that is rare in other races.

Money raised by the event goes towards a scholarship fund for working IU students, and the race is a major social event on campus during the spring. The Women's race is just one of the several expansions added to the Men's Little 500 in order to create a week of celebration. Other events are the annual Little 50, a 50 lap running relay race and Alumni Races, which are held every 5 years. Other student celebrations during the weekend of the race have helped earn it the title of "The World's Greatest College Weekend," and it is known to be the busiest weekend of the year for the local police force. No longer seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong called the Little 500, which has raised more than $1 million in scholarship money, "the coolest event I ever attended." [1]

The women's race was started in 1987 after several years of efforts by women who believed the men's race was not a viable option. The women's fraternity Kappa Alpha Theta made an attempt to qualify for the men's race in 1986. They qualified 34th. The team missed qualifying by one spot. After this, there was much debate over whether girls should be allowed to race in the men's race. Many feared for the women's safety. In order to avoid complications, the Indiana University Student Foundation along with the Indiana University Office of Women's affairs worked to create women's race the following year. Since then, the popularity of the women's race has been growing and on April 21, 2006, the women's race had its first-ever full field of 33 teams.

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