This Friday (June 26–28), the 2026 Mont Blanc Marathon will get underway。跑野和越野看台 will jointly livestream the 90 km (Friday starting 14:45), the Youth race (Saturday starting 20:50) and the 42 km category (Sunday starting 13:10).

As one of Europe’s oldest trail races, the inaugural Mont-Blanc Marathon was staged in 1979 in Chamonix — at the time it was called the Mont-Blanc Cross and featured only a 23 km category. In 2003 the race was officially renamed the Mont-Blanc Marathon and the distance was extended to roughly 42 km with 2,200 m of cumulative ascent. Today, against the backdrop of trail running’s global growth, it has evolved into a three-day mountain running festival.

This year's Mont Blanc Marathon featured eight categories in total, with the 42 km category receiving the most attention, followed by the 90 km category.

The Mont Blanc Marathon 42 km category was once a stage of the Golden Trail World Series; Yao Miao competed in this category in both 2023 and 2024, earning a runner-up and a third-place finish.

Which elite athletes are taking part this year? Based on the officially announced list of elite entrants, the lineup is very strong and the competition should be fierce (by the way, the official poster looks really nice).

First, let's look at the women's 42KM category:

The clear favorite for the title is Sweden's trail queen Tove Alexandersson . At last year's World Mountain and Trail Running Championships she convincingly won the 45 km short-distance title and set a women's single-race ITRA performance-score record of 877.This year she has competed in 50 km-level trail races, all won by commanding margins, andlowered the course record at Zegama-Aizkorri by 8 minutes.

So the question is: by how much can she improve the women's course record at the Mont Blanc Marathon? (The course record — distance over 42 km, cumulative ascent over 2,500 m — is 4:11:12, set last year in 2024 by Judith Wyder.)

One of the runners who could threaten her is Romania's Madalina Florea. She was last year's Golden Trail World Series overall champion and has just taken the Broken Arrow title in the United States — she's in red-hot form.

Compared to the women's race, the men's competition is even more intense.

Last year's champion, Italian Davide Magnini ; the 2023 men's champion, Swiss uphill specialist Remi Bonnet ; last year's World Mountain and Trail Running Championships 45 km short-distance men's champion, France's own Frederic Tranchand ; the 2023 Zegama champion, Spain's Manuel Merillas ; the 2024 OCC champion, American Eli Hemming , all have a shot at victory. Who do you favor?

China's trail-running rising star Shi Guo from Guizhou will take part — what result can he deliver? As a point of reference, Yan Longfei ran this category in 2014, finishing 16th.

The 90 km category of the Mont-Blanc Marathon was first held in 2013; at that time the distance was 80 km. Although this category doesn’t attract as much attention as the 42 km category, and the prize money is lower, the elite field is still very strong.

On the men's side, 9 athletes with a UTMB Index above 900 will compete together, including the 2023 CCC champion, British athlete Jonathan Albon ；last year's UTMB runner-up, American athlete Ben Dhiman ；the 2024 UTMB runner-up, French athlete Baptiste Chassagne ；the 2023 Mont Blanc Marathon 90K runner-up, French athlete Louison Coiffet ；last year's OCC runner-up,Italian athlete Cristian Minoggio ；the 2024 Mont Blanc Marathon 90K men's champion, neutral athlete Dmitry Mityaev 。

Who do you think is most likely to win?

One more athlete to watch is the returning Xavier Thévenard (holder of UTMB, CCC and OCC titles). He may not be at his peak, but being back on the start line is already a good sign.

Trail Running Big Bang / Trail Stand will live-stream the 2026 Mont Blanc Marathon and provide Chinese commentary for the 42 km category.

Stay tuned.

Text:CC / Editor:CC

Photo:Trail Running  / Visuals：Max