Eden Rainbow-Cooper wins 2026 Boston Marathon women’s wheelchair race

Eden Rainbow-Cooper gained the ladies’s wheelchair division of the 2026 Boston Marathon Monday, cruising to her second Boston victory in 1:30:51. 

The 24-year-old from Portsmouth, England, opened a decisive lead early within the race and maintained her dominant place all through the course’s punishing hills. She had greater than two minutes on the second-place finisher, Catherine Debrunner, however fell wanting the 1:28:17 course file set by Manuela Schär — this yr’s fourth-place finisher — in 2017. 

Together with her landmark Boston victory in 2024, Rainbow-Cooper grew to become the primary girl from Nice Britain to win the division. She positioned fourth in final yr’s race following a coaching season dogged by a persistent back injury. 

Last year’s champion, Susannah Scaroni, withdrew from the race to focus on her pregnancy. Nevertheless, she was available Monday morning to fireside the beginning gun for the ladies’s wheelchair division. 

Born with sacral agenesis, which impacts the event of the decrease backbone, Rainbow-Cooper managed to shave greater than 4 minutes off her 2024 private better of 1:35:11.

Boston “looks like dwelling,” she advised WCVB following the race. “Each time I come right here, there’s a bit piece of me that stays right here.” 

Interviewed alongside males’s wheelchair champion Marcel Hug — who secured his ninth Boston Marathon win Monday — she chuckled when requested if she plans to aim the same variety of Boston wins. 

“I’ll give it a go, however no guarantees,” Rainbow-Cooper stated.

Abby Patkin is a basic task information reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, well being, and all the pieces in between.