微信内可能无法直接打开本站。请点右上角 ··· → 在浏览器打开，或复制链接。
2026 UTMB Women’s Preview
RSS 官方收录 · 可信分层展示
关键摘要
The post 2026 UTMB Women’s Preview appeared first on iRunFar.The best long distance trail runners in the world are set to race at the 2026 UTMB!…
- Kiwi Ruth Croft will be back following her win last year against a gro…
- , past OCC and CCC winner Blandine L’Hirondel of France, and many othe…
- Ruth Croft during the 2025 UTMB, on her way to winning the race.
摘要引擎：抽取
正文提要
The post 2026 UTMB Women’s Preview appeared first on iRunFar.
The best long distance trail runners in the world are set to race at the 2026 UTMB! Kiwi Ruth Croft will be back following her win last year against a group that includes three-time winner Courtney Dauwalter of the U.S., past OCC and CCC winner Blandine L’Hirondel of France, and many others.
The race starts at 5:45 p.m. Central European Summer Time on Friday, August 28, 2026. The big loop around Mont Blanc will go for 177 kilometers (110 miles) with more than 9,900 meters (32,000 feet) of climbing across France, Italy, and Switzerland.
Croft was second in 2024 and came back to win last year’s race in exceptionally poor weather. Dauwalter was there too but faded in the race’s second half to finish 10th. Katie Schide’s 22:09 finish in the race’s 2024 edition is recognized as the course record.
Prize money goes 10 deep, and totals 119,000 Euro, split evenly between the men and women, with the race winners each earning 20,000 Euro. That’s just over $23,000.
See the full entrants list.
Also, be sure to read our in-depth 2026 UTMB men’s preview.
You bet that iRunFar will be covering the 2026 UTMB! Tune in to our UTMB live race coverage starting at 5:45 p.m. CEST (9:45 a.m. U.S. Mountain Daylight Time) on Friday, August 28. Stay tuned!
Returning Top 10 Women
Six of last year’s top 10 finishers will return for 2026. Last year’s second- and third-place finishers, Camille Bruyas (France) and Katharina Hartmuth (Germany), won’t be back, nor will sixth- and eighth-place Magali Mellon (France) and Lauren Puretz (U.S.).
Ruth Croft – 1st, 22:56:23
If you overlook a hypothermia-induced drop at the 2025 Transvulcania, you’ve got to go back to 2020 to find a race in which 2025 UTMB champ Ruth Croft finished off the podium. She was ninth at the Golden Trail World Series stage race in 2020. Since then, the New Zealander took third at the 2023 Ultra Pirineu Marathon and has been first or second in everything else. At UTMB, she was second in 2024 behind Katie Schide’s course-record run, and then she won last year’s race. Elsewhere at the UTMB Mont Blanc festival, Croft won OCC in 2019 and 2018, and CCC in 2015. With last year’s UTMB win, she became the first woman to win all three of the UTMB World Series Finals distances. Alongside Nikki Kimball, Courtney Dauwalter, and Schide, Croft is the fourth woman to win both the Western States 100 and UTMB. In 2026, Croft won the Tarawera 100k for the fourth time, finished second at the Ultra-Trail Australia 50k, and won the MaXi-Race Annecy 58k. She’s the favorite for this year’s race, though no woman has repeated as UTMB winner since Rory Bosio won in 2013 and 2014.
Anna Carlsson – 4th, 24:39:42
Last year’s fourth-place run was Anna Carlsson’s first UTMB finish. The Swede dropped in her first attempt in 2021. This year, she won both the EcoTrail Paris 80k and the Trail Verbier St. Bernard 77k. Her Trail Verbier St. Bernard time was nearly an hour faster than her 2025 time. Can she go an hour faster at UTMB, too? If so, that puts her in rarified air at the finish line.
Lucy Bartholomew – 7th, 24:51:32
Lucy Bartholomew has finished UTMB inside the top 10 in three straight years. Before last year’s seventh place, she was 10th in 2024 and 2023. Bartholomew’s been running great recently. The Aussie has been second at both Transvulcania and the Lavaredo Ultra Trail this year, and in both cases, the race winner ran a course record in front of her. Last year at UTMB, her limiting factor was a fall and a knee injury before the midway point, so we are keen to see her healthy potential this year.
Claudia Tremps – 9th, 25:05:07
Spain’s Claudia Tremps was ninth, eighth, and ninth in three UTMB finishes in 2025, 2024, and 2021. That’s really consistent, but another one isn’t a guarantee, as she also dropped in 2023. This year, Tremps tied for second at Transgrancanaria with Mélanie Delasoie, dropped at the Canyons 100k, and finished fourth at the Val d’Aran 110k.
Courtney Dauwalter – 10th, 25:50:38
Courtney Dauwalter has won UTMB three times, but ran into trouble last year. The American led through the halfway mark, and then struggled over the race’s second half to take 10th. Her three wins came in 2023, 2021, and 2019, with that 2023 win right after victories at Western States 100 and the Hardrock 100 in a legendary summer. So far in 2026, Dauwalter won the Chianti 120k with a thrilling late-race push ahead of Rachel Entrekin in third. She was then second to Entrekin at the Cocodona 250 Mile and then won Hardrock in July for the fourth time. The Hardrock-UTMB double historically goes better than the Western States-UTMB double, but Dauwalter still needs recovery that Croft and others don’t. Though it’s just 48 days from when Dauwalter finished Hardrock to when she lines up at UTMB, she is likely the biggest threat to Croft’s chances of a second win.
More Favorites for the 2026 UTMB Top 10 Women
French all-star Blandine L’Hirondel has raced at the UTMB Mont Blanc festival every year since 2021. That first year, she won OCC. A year later, in 2022, she won CCC. She got close to the triple crown with third- and fifth-place finishes at UTMB in 2023 and 2024, and then went back to CCC in 2025 to finish fourth. She’ll try to join Croft in winning OCC, CCC, and UTMB. So far this year, L’Hirondel set a new course record at Transvulcania ahead of Bartholomew, in addition to competing in a few shorter races. We place her as one of the women’s favorites.
Chinese runner Fu-Zhao Xiang is historically a prolific racer. She raced ultra distances at least eight times last year, but that number is only around two for this year. In 2026, she placed seventh at Western States 100 and had won the Buffalo Stampede 100k earlier. Last year, she was second at Western States but only 13th at CCC. On the big UTMB loop, she dropped in 2024 and was fourth and seventh in 2023 and 2022.
Rachel Entrekin
It’ll be Rachel Entrekin’s first time racing UTMB, and that creates a challenge in itself. You’ve got to go back to Dauwalter’s first win in 2019 for the last time a UTMB rookie won. The American has had her greatest success at the Cocodona 250 Mile. She won last year’s race and then shot to international fame with an overall win and overall course record this year. She beat Dauwalter there both times. She carried a 20-plus-race win streak into 2026, with some fans wishing her to race at globally competitive events. Entrekin answered that call with a third-place finish behind Dauwalter at this year’s Chianti 120k. The win streak stopped, but Entrekin showed she’s world-class. Before Chianti and Cocodona, Entrekin also won this year’s Coldwater Rumble 100 Mile in 16:19, and she’s a past High Lonesome 100 Mile winner too, among other wins.
Sunmaya Budha is the new Lavaredo 120k course record holder. She won this year’s race ahead of Bartholomew in second. She also won last year’s Ultra-Trail Cape Town 100k and was second at the 2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail. Budha, hailing from Nepal, was second at CCC in 2022 behind winner L’Hirondel and ahead of third place Abby Hall. She did drop at OCC in 2024, however. Budha is one of a couple of top runners debuting at 100 miles with this race.
Abby Hall was third and second at CCC in 2022 and 2021. The American came back from a serious injury to win the 2025 Western States 100. After that, she dropped at UTMB in 2025 and dropped at Western States in 2026. In between, she won the December 2025 McDowell Mountain Frenzy 50 Mile and was fifth at the Black Canyon 100k in February 2026. Hall’s Western States win last year shows she has the talent to compete with the world’s best, so let’s see.
Another American runner, Riley Brady, is on a great performance streak of late. Brady was second at Western States 100 in June 2026, won the Canyons 100k in April 2026, and was third at the Gorge Waterfalls 30k earlier this year, too. Last year, they dropped at Western States but came back to win the Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile. Brady raced once in Chamonix before, dropping at CCC in 2024. Brady identifies as non-binary and competes in the women’s division.
The current ascendancy of American Careth Arnold’s career is a joy to watch. With years of results to her name, the last year’s been particularly exciting with her winning the 2025 TDS, taking second at the Canyons 100k, and second again at the 2026 Hardrock 100 behind Dauwalter. Also like Dauwalter, Arnold’s trying that 48-day double back from Hardrock.
After a year away, Italy’s Martina Valmassoi is back at UTMB. She was ninth in 2024 after dropping in 2023. And she won TDS in 2022 after dropping in 2021. Valmassoi’s been pretty great this year after coming back from an injury, winning both the Trail 100 Andorra 105k and the Monte Rosa WalserWaeg 82k.
From the U.S., Rachel Drake’s best results to date have been in races under 100 miles. She won this year’s Madeira Island Ultra-Trail 56k and was third at the Broken Arrow 46k. In 2024, she won both the JFK 50 Mile and the Black Canyon 100k. Drake was eighth at Western States 100 in 2024, too, for her only 100-mile finish so far. At the UTMB Mont Blanc festival, Drake was sixth and 21st at the 2023 and 2021 OCC, and seventh at the 2019 CCC.
From Canada, Jazmine Lowther had an incredible second half at the 2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail. She finished fourth, just off the podium, moving up late. That same kind of pacing likely won’t win UTMB, but it could get her on the podium. Lowther was third at this year’s Madeira Island Ultra-Trail. Also, last year, she was eighth at OCC, and in 2022, she was fourth at CCC.
Ida Nilsson from Sweden missed starting this year’s Western States 100 with an injury and dropped out of this year’s Mont Blanc 90k. She hasn’t finished an ultra since running 21st at last September’s Trail World Championships Long Trail. And she hasn’t raced at the UTMB Mont Blanc festival since 2023, when she dropped from CCC. She dropped at CCC in 2022, too, but was third in 2018. We believe this will be her first start of the big loop.
Fiona Pascall from the U.K. scored eighth- and fifth-place finishes at Western States 100 in 2026 and 2025. She was 15th at CCC last year but dropped at UTMB in 2024.
This will be the first 100 miler for Norway’s Henriette Albon. She won Transgrancanaria in both 2026 and 2025. At UTMB World Series races, she was sixth at both the 2022 CCC and 2021 OCC.
No Chinese woman finished inside the top 10 last year. Lin Chen and her countrywoman Xiang give the country their best chances this year. A year ago, Chen dropped out of UTMB, but she was fourth in 2024. She started the year with drops at both Tarawera 100k and the Chianti 120k, but won the Chongli 168k in July. She finished an hour better than in 2025 at Chongli.
Going back to 2022, American Kaytlyn Gerbin took third at UTMB. Following time off for motherhood, major surgery, and recovery — along with some mega adventure running mixed in — Gerbin is back into big racing. In 2025, she won the Cascade Crest 100 Mile ahead of taking fifth at the 205-mile Tor des Géants. And earlier this year, she took second at the Mt. Fuji 100 Mile.
Eszter Csillag’s most notable finish at the UTMB Mont Blanc festival over the years has been a fifth-place UTMB finish in 2022. She also got as high as fourth at the CCC back in 2021. Elsewhere, the Hungarian has finished third at the 2024 and 2023 Western States 100. So far this year, she took fifth at the Lavaredo Ultra Trail behind first- and second-place Budha and Bartholomew.
Eleanor Davis
It looks like the U.K.’s Eleanor Davis is debuting at 100 miles with this race. She’s been at the UTMB Mont Blanc festival a couple of times over the years, taking 12th at the 2025 CCC and eighth at the 2022 OCC.
It would not be a surprise if and when neutral athlete Ekaterina Mityaeva cracks the UTMB code and ends up on the podium, but despite a long and successful ultra career, she’s not gotten there just yet. This year, she’s been third at the Mont Blanc 90k, an event she’s won or podiumed at numerous times. Going way back, she placed fourth at the 2019 UTMB, but she has not finished this race in two subsequent attempts, including last year.
Mélanie Delasoie
We believe the Swiss athlete Mélanie Delasoie has four prior attempts at UTMB, including a 15th last year, her best performance to date. Earlier this year, she tied for second at the 2026 Transgrancanaria with Tremps.
Even More Fast 2026 UTMB Women
- Shea Aquilano (U.S.) – 6th 2026 & 2025 Black Canyon 100k; 16th 2025 Western States 100
- Katie Asmuth (U.S.) – 5th 2026 Tarawera 100k; 4th 2023 Western States 100
- Stephanie Auston (Australia) – 2nd 2026 Ultra-Trail Australia 100 Mile; 9th 2026 Tarawera 100k
- Amanda Basham (U.S.) – 3rd 2026 Canyons 100 Mile; 10th 2025 Chianti 120k
- Naomi Brand (South Africa) – 4th 2025 Tarawera 100 Mile; 2nd 2024 Ultra-Trail Cape Town 100 Mile
- Katarzyna Dombrowska (Poland) – 1st 2026 Val d’Aran 100 Mile; 1st 2026 Ultra-Trail Australia 100k
- Mari Klakegg Fenre (Norway) – 3rd 2026 & 1st 2025 Val d’Aran 100k; 16th 2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail; 14th 2024 UTMB
- Céline Finas (France) – 6th 2026 Mont Blanc 90k; 8th 2026 Transvulcania
- Nicolette Griffioen (South Africa) – 1st 2025 Ultra-Trail Cape Town 100 Mile; 1st 2025 Mountain Ultra Trail 100 Mile
- Genevieve Harrison (U.S.) – 4th 2026 Canyons 100 Mile; 3rd 2025 Kodiak 100 Mile
- Antonina Iushina (Neutral) – 1st 2026 Ultra-Trail Australia 100 Mile; 1st 2025 Chiangmai Thailand 100 Mile
- Jennifer Lemoine (France) – 1st 2026 Grand Raid Ventoux 125k; 17th 2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail
- Anna Li (China) – 2nd 2026 Trail Alsace 100k; 3rd 2025 Ultra-Trail Ninghai 100k
- Anna Louden (U.S.) – 9th 2026 Lavaredo Ultra Trail; 6th 2025 Javelina 100 Mile
- Emilie Mann (Canada) – 3rd 2026 Ultra-Trail Australia 100k; 6th 2025 Ultra-Trail Cape Town 100k; 1st 2024 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile
- Sandi Nypaver (U.S.) – 1st 2025 Grindstone 100 Mile; 6th 2024 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile
- Emily Schmitz (U.S.) – 20th 2025 CCC; 12th 2024 Western States 100
- Corinne Shalvoy (U.S.) – 3rd 2026 Desert RATS 100k; 2nd 2025 Javelina 100k
- Aroa Sío (Spain) – 2nd 2026 Val d’Aran 100 Mile; 23rd 2025 CCC; 8th 2022 UTMB
- Anne-Cécile Thévenot (France) – 18th 2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail; 7th 2024 CCC
- Li-Ping Wang (China) – 3rd 2026 Chongli 100 Mile
- Leah Yingling (U.S.) – 3rd 2026 Speedgoat 50k; 8th 2023 UTMB
Call for Comments
- Can Ruth Croft repeat, will Blandine L’Hirondel win the last piece of the OCC-CCC-UTMB triple crown, will Courtney Dauwalter get her fourth victory, or will someone else run away with it?
- What else are you thinking about in the 2026 UTMB women’s field?
- Who would you move up in the rankings? And what did we miss that readers should know about?