Women’s field for 2026 Boston Marathon features American stars

Just one American lady has managed to win the open division on the Boston Marathon within the final 4 a long time, when Des Linden outlasted the sector in monsoon situations to assert victory on Boylston Avenue in 2018.

If there was ever an opportunity for an additional American lady to interrupt the tape first in Boston, this is perhaps the 12 months.

The 2026 Boston Marathon will function maybe the strongest group of American ladies within the race’s historical past, with 13 boasting private bests quicker than 2 hours, 26 minutes.

“The power of the American discipline, mixed with the worldwide discipline’s expertise, is setting the stage for a conflict that might lead to data and dash finishes on Boylston Avenue,” mentioned Mary Kate Shea, the BAA’s chief working officer, in a launch. “One of the best of the very best have circled the Boston Marathon on their calendar.”

That group consists of the whole 2024 US Olympic marathon group, trials winner Fiona O’Keeffe, Boston veteran Dakota Popehn, and American record-holder Emily Sisson.

O’Keeffe (fourth on the 2025 New York Metropolis Marathon) and Popehn (seventh in Chicago in October) are coming off sturdy fall showings, whereas Sisson — the American record-holder over 26.2 miles — returned from a quiet 12 months following the 2024 Olympics to complete three locations behind O’Keeffe in New York.

Sisson, a two-time nationwide champion on the observe at Windfall School, is making her Boston Marathon debut after years of success on the main marathon circuit, together with her American record-breaking run (2:18:29) in Chicago in 2022.

“The Boston Marathon has been a race I’ve seemed ahead to competing in for a few years,” mentioned Sisson, who lives in Eire. “I’m able to tackle the difficult course and be a part of one of many legendary races in our sport.”

The Marathon additionally will function the lady from whom Sisson took that American document, Keira D’Amato, in addition to final 12 months’s prime American, Jess McClain.

Different notable People embody the fifth-fastest American lady in historical past, Sara Corridor; final 12 months’s second-place American, Annie Frisbie; and Susanna Sullivan and Erika Kemp, who joined McClain on the American group for final 12 months’s world championships in Tokyo.

They’ll all be trying to snatch the crown from Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi, who will return to defend her title after dethroning two-time winner Hellen Obiri in a course-record time of two:17:22.

Lokedi is one in all a trio of girls carrying private bests quicker than 2:18 into Boston, alongside fellow Kenyan Irine Cheptai (2:17:51) and Ethiopia’s Workenesh Edesa (2:17:55).

Final 12 months’s ladies’s wheelchair race was the strongest in historical past, with 4 Boston champions — People Susannah Scaroni and Tatyana McFadden, Switzerland’s Manuela Schär, and Nice Britain’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper boast 12 wins between them — lining up alongside maybe essentially the most adorned wheelchair racer in historical past, Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner.

All 5 are again for 2026, with five-time champion Wakako Tsuchida of Japan (who gained each title from 2007-11) becoming a member of the combo.

Scaroni put away that elite discipline final spring for her second title, the beginning of a dominant 2025 that additionally included wins in Chicago, New York, and Sydney.

“Profitable the Boston Marathon on the fiftieth anniversary of the wheelchair division in 2025 was important and set the ball rolling for a robust season,” mentioned Scaroni. “Boston is all the time a race I sit up for and can carry out the very best on Marathon Monday.”

The Marathon will happen on April 20.