Western States is the biggest ultra in the United States and the 2026 edition looks set to be another classic.
Nine of the top 10 women – including all of the podium – return from 2025, while legends Kilian Jornet and course record holder Jim Walmsley headline the men’s field.
The 53rd edition will feature 370 runners from all around the world on the start line at Olympic Valley, California, near the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics.
Ahead of them is an iconic 100-mile route to the historic gold-rush town of Auburn, California, a legendary destination in trail running and considered the birthplace of mountain ultras in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.
It all gets under way at 5am local time on Saturday, June 27, at Palisades Tahoe Resort. That’s 8am on the east coast, 1pm in the UK and 2pm in central Europe.
Western States live
We’ll be providing updates and reports as the event unfolds and this will be the live tracking link.
There will be a live broadcast throughout too, which we’ll embed nearer the time.
That’s scheduled to start at 4:15am local time (7:15am ET, 12:15pm BST, 1:15pm CET) on Saturday, June 27 and the broadcast will continue through the entirety of the event, concluding at 11am on Sunday, June 28.
Western States 100-mile Endurance Run
start list
The full start list can be found here.
Read on for our analysis of some of the star names who will be doing battle – and who we think will come out on top.
Notable runners
Route
From Olympic Valley, the runners will traverse the picturesque high country of the historic Western States Trail through the Granite Chief Wilderness in the early morning.
They will then plunge into the deep canyons of the American River drainage and pass through the sites of old mining settlements such as Last Chance, Deadwood and Michigan Bluff, making technical and challenging ascents and descents.
They then cross the Middle Fork of the American River at mile 78 where a guide rope is stretched across the river, with rafts used in high-water years.
From there, they will make a final push to the finish line at the track of Placer High School in Auburn, California.
The trail features more than 18,000ft of ascent and descends nearly 23,000ft – and as things stand the forecast looks sunny and dry but with relatively cool (13 degrees Celsius) temperatures, in stark contrast to last year’s hot conditions.
Analysis
There’s no Courtney Dauwalter, Katie Schide or Rachel Entrekin, three of the very biggest names who have done so much to elevate women’s ultrarunning to new heights.
But this is still a very special line up, underlined by nine of last year’s top 10 returning.
Pride of place goes to defending champion Abby Hall and the video below nicely illustrates the shift in mindset from 12 months ago.
Friends and rivals Fuzhao Xiang and Marianne Hogan were second and third respectively last year and have been training together recently – read more about that here.
Yngvild Kaspersen, Emily Hawgood and Fiona Pascall all have a range of huge wins to their names while Tara Dower‘s incredible FKT achievements put her right up there too.
Pascall in particular stands out after a debut fifth last year and a super-impressive start to 2026.
And there’s a fascinating addition as 2020 Olympic marathon bronze medal winner Molly Seidel will be tackling her first 100-miler this week.
On the men’s side the return of Kilian Jornet, the winner in 2011 and third last year on his first appearance since then, takes top billing.
However the Spanish GOAT has had four weeks off running since Zegama so there has to be a question mark about him taking the top step on the podium, though he did say ‘Saturday can’t come soon enough’ on his socials this week!
Jim Walmsley has won the race four times and his 14:09 from 2019 remains the course record. To the delight of pretty much everyone, even his rivals, he got a sponsor’s route in to this year via HOKA.
Again there’s an incredible array of talent – Adam Peterman won in 2022, Jeff Mogavero was fourth last year in the fastest-ever time for a debutant while Kiwi Dan Jones has been top five in all of his three Western States attempts so far. His friend and training partner Hayden Hawks is another for the short list too.
And what about trail running superstar Francesco Puppi from Italy who makes his Western States debut?
Both races promise to be very, very special.
Previous winners and record times
The Western States 100 Results from 2010 are:
*Course record
-
- 2025 – Men: Caleb Olson, USA, 14:11:25/ Women: Abby Hall USA, 16:37:16
- 2024 – Men: Jim Walmsley, USA, 14:13:45/ Women: Katie Schide, USA, 15:46:57
- 2023 – Men: Tom Evans, GBR, 14:40:22/ Women: Courtney Dauwalter, USA, 15:29:33*
- 2022 – Men: Adam Peterman, USA, 15:13:48/ Women: Ruth Croft, New Zealand, 17:21:30
- 2021 – Men: Jim Walmsley, USA, 14:46:00/ Women: Beth Pascall, GBR, 17:10:42
- 2019 – Men: Jim Walmsley, USA, 14:09:28*/ Women: Clare Gallagher, USA, 17:23:24
- 2018 – Men: Jim Walmsley, USA, 14:30:04/ Women: Courtney Dauwalter, USA, 17:27:00
- 2017 – Men: Ryan Sandes, South Africa, 16:19:38/ Women: Cat Bradley, USA, 19:31:31
- 2016 – Men: Andrew Miller, USA, 15:39:36/ Women: Kaci Lickteig, USA, 17:57:59
- 2015 – Men: Rob Krar, Canada, 14:48:59/ Women: Magdalena Boulet, USA, 19:05:21
- 2014 – Men: Rob Krar, Canada, 14:53:22/ Women: Stephanie Howe, USA, 18:01:42
- 2013 – Men: Timothy Olson, USA, 15:17:27/ Women: Pam Smith, USA, 18:37:21
- 2012 – Men: Timothy Olson, USA, 14:46:44/ Women: Ellie Greenwood, GBR, 16:47:11
- 2011 – Men: Kilian Jornet, Spain, 15:34:24/ Women: Ellie Greenwood, GBR, 17:55:29
- 2010 – Men: Geoff Roes, USA, 15:07:04/ Women: Tracy Garneau, Canada, 19:01:55
Past winners
Tab 2 content.
