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2026 Boston Marathon pro field to include all four defending champions, both American record-holders
It’s believed to be a first for the Boston Marathon to have all four defending champions, plus both American record-holders on the start list.
With 130 days to go until the 130th Boston Marathon, the professional fields are already shaping up, with star power at the top.
The Boston Athletic Association announced Thursday that all four champions from 2025 will return to defend their titles, as well as the inclusion of the men’s and women’s American record-holders in the pro fields.
It’s believed to be a first for the Boston Marathon to have all four defending champions, plus both American record-holders on the start list.
“With 130 years of history, it’s rare that you have something that is unprecedented,” BAA president and CEO Jack Fleming told the Globe. “Athletes have choices, some of them want to run different courses. So when they do elect to return to Boston, we feel that additional emotional connection with them, as well as the athletic admiration.”
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The men’s and women’s open races were thrilling in 2025, with Kenyans John Korir and Sharon Lokedi breaking away from loaded fields to claim their first Boston crowns.
Korir joined his brother, Wesley, in the ranks of Boston Marathon winners despite an early fall. Minutes later, Lokedi dethroned two-time reigning champion Hellen Obiri (in course-record time) in the women’s race.
The pack chasing Korir last spring included Conner Mantz, who pieced together one of the finest performances in American men’s marathoning history. Mantz’s time of 2 hours, 5 minutes, 8 seconds was the second-fastest for an American man over 26.2 miles, though he had to settle for fourth in a sprint finish.
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Mantz was spectacular again in October’s Chicago Marathon, breaking the American record with a time of 2:04:43. Still, he had to settle for fourth once more.
“Finishing fourth a year ago was very close to my goal of placing in the top three,” Mantz said in a release. “I’m eager to return to Boston and race against the best of the best again. Boston’s full of history and I’m working to give it my all every step towards Boylston Street.”
The women’s pro race will feature the American record-holder for the first time since 2018, when Deena Kastor last raced in Boston. Providence College graduate Emily Sisson, who claimed the record with a time of 2:18:29 in Chicago in 2022, will take on Boston for the first time in April.
“Conner and Emily are in the prime of their careers,” Fleming said. “Both of them have their American records from the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, right, fast course — but for them to want to challenge themselves again on the Boston course, where they’re looking for the highest place possible in the race. That is, they’re looking to win.“
Both American record-holders will be in the field in a year that marks 250 years of American independence.
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“To be going into an All-American year with the American record-holders … You know, sometimes the stories write themselves here in Boston,” Fleming said.
Sisson finished eighth at last month’s New York City Marathon. Obiri claimed another crown that day after sprinting away from Lokedi, seven months after Lokedi had turned the tables in Boston.
It’s no surprise to see Marcel Hug returning to Boston next spring, as the Swiss wheelchair racing star has won eight of the last 10 titles in the men’s race, including the last three.
In the women’s wheelchair race, American Susannah Scaroni will seek her third title after taking down a loaded field in 2025. Scaroni held off a chase pack that included the previous three winners in fellow American Tatyana McFadden, Great Britain’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper, and Switzerland’s Manuela Schär, as well as debuting Swiss star Catherine Debrunner.
The complete professional fields will be announced in January. The race is scheduled for April 20.
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