Andreas Almgren became the first Swede to win the New York City Marathon, while Kenyan Sheila Chepkirui won her second title in three years at the five-borough race.
Almgren, the 2025 World 10,000m bronze medalist, won in 2:06:01 in his marathon debut, becoming the first Swedish runner to win any major marathon. He pulled away from Yemaneberhan Crippa of Italy by 13 seconds.
Almgren, a 31-year-old with a background in data science, had Olympic summers derailed by injuries in 2016 (navicular bone stress fracture when he was an 800m runner) and 2021 (torn meniscus).
In 2024, he traveled to Paris to make his Olympic debut. But he withdrew one day before the 5000m heats, unable to recover in time from a stress reaction in his right tibia.
In 2025, he became the first Swedish male runner to win a World Outdoor Track and Field Championships medal. A little over a month later, he was an inspired spectator the New York City Marathon, spending time at mile eight in Brooklyn and then closer to the finish on First Avenue and Central Park. He texted his manager that he wanted to race New York City in 2026.
He trained while authoring a book — “Spring Snabbare” (the Swedish translated to “Run Faster”) — and then won the World Half Marathon Championships on Sept. 20 in Copenhagen.
Almgren, draped in a Swedish flag after Sunday’s triumph, summed it up.
“This marathon thing, it’s quite fun,” he told Lewis Johnson on the ESPN2/ABC New York broadcast.
Chepkirui, 35, crossed the Central Park finish line in 2:24:36, prevailing by six seconds over surging American Jess McClain.
McClain overtook two-time New York City champ Hellen Obiri of Kenya by 41 hundredths of a second in the final strides, marking the first podium for a U.S. female or male runner in New York City since Shalane Flanagan was third in her title defense in 2018.
McClain, fourth at the 2024 Olympic Trials in the marathon and the 10,000m, was also the top American at the Boston Marathon in 2025 and 2026. The Scottsdale, Arizona, resident is a contender to make her first Olympics at age 36 come the March 2028 marathon trials in St. Louis.
McClain, after an All-American career at Stanford, had to watch the 2016 Olympic Trials 5000m from the stands in Eugene, Oregon, due to a stress fracture in her tibia.
She then raced just once between February 2020 and February 2022 — the 2021 Crown City Classic 12km, according to her World Athletics bio — while deciding to focus on a marketing career and her personal life.
Then, after getting married in 2021, she decided to celebrate her 30th birthday by running a marathon for the first time — winning the 2022 Mesa Marathon in Arizona in 2:33:35.
In 2024, she flew to Paris during the Olympics as an alternate but didn’t end up getting into the marathon field.
“It was a crappy thing to have to step away (from competitive running) honestly, but sometimes it’s OK to take a breather and take a beat,” she said. "(I) realized that competitive nature was still buried deep, deep, deep down. Found my way back into this world in the marathon, and I couldn’t be happier to be here and more proud of myself that I put myself back in it.”
Edna Kiplagat, the 2010 New York City champ from Kenya, finished fourth on Sunday at age 46.
Olympic gold medalist Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands and 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials champion Fiona O’Keeffe withdrew three weeks before the race due to sickness (Hassan) and left hamstring surgery (O’Keeffe).
The top 2028 U.S. Olympic hopeful on the men’s side on Sunday was Zouhair Talbi in sixth in 2:06:43, a time faster than the American course record.
Talbi, who was 35th in the Paris Olympic marathon for Morocco, joined the U.S. Army Reserve in 2025. He gained U.S. citizenship and was granted a nationality switch for competition to the U.S., going into effect in August 2027, allowing him to race the 2028 Olympic Trials.
At the 2026 Boston Marathon on April 20, Talbi ran the fastest marathon ever for a U.S. citizen of 2:03:45 (fifth place). Boston times are not record eligible due to the course layout.
“My goal was I want to be with the top guys as far as possible,” Talbi said Sunday. “This is the first time in a major marathon that in the last two miles I was having a chance to win the race.”
Conner Mantz was 11th (2:07:27) on Sunday in his first marathon since lowering the American record to 2:04:43 in Chicago in October 2025. New York City has the slowest times of the major American marathons due to its undulating course.
Mantz reflected on what he called a “not great” Sunday, after dealing with multiple injuries in the previous year, including a sacral stress fracture.
He felt fatigued last Tuesday, but by race day thought he had a shot at a top-five finish.
“I don’t know what it was, but it just seemed like my legs just weren’t there today,” he told media near the finish line. “It’s like you really have it and some days ... I’m kind of speechless right now. My workouts have gone so well.”
The Swiss swept the wheelchair races with Marcel Hug (eighth title, one second ahead of American Daniel Romanchuk) and Catherine Debrunner (second title, by 8:25 over American Tatyana McFadden).
American Susannah Scaroni, who won in 2022, 2024 and 2025, was third in her first race since having son Jonah on Aug. 6.
New York City marked the last World Marathon Major of 2026, though the Valencia Marathon in Spain (Dec. 6) traditionally produces fast times.
