The elite fields for HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc 2026 have been announced, with some of the biggest names in ultra-running heading to Chamonix for the fourth edition of the event to host the UTMB World Series Finals.
Taking place from 24–30 August, the 23rd edition of HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc will see the OCC, CCC and UTMB decide the 2026 UTMB World Series Finals champions across the 50K, 100K and 100M distances.
The organisers say almost 70% of the world’s top elite athletes will be represented across the three races, with 846 elite athletes entered. Women account for 46% of the field, an increase of 4% on 2025.
Among the 54 nationalities represented, 34% of athletes are from France, Switzerland or Italy, while 68% are European.
Legends return for the UTMB
The headline UTMB race will see several of the sport’s biggest names return to the Mont-Blanc massif for the 174km, 9,900m elevation-gain course.
Four-time champion Kilian Jornet will return to the race for the first time since his 2022 victory. The Spaniard won the UTMB in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2022 and remains one of the most successful athletes in the race’s history.
He will face a formidable field that includes fellow UTMB Legends Courtney Dauwalter, Ruth Croft, Jim Walmsley and France’s Vincent Bouillard.
Croft returns as defending champion and is attempting to become the first woman to win the UTMB twice since the race became part of the UTMB World Series Finals. She is also the only woman to have won all three Finals races.
Dauwalter, a three-time UTMB winner, will be looking for a fourth victory after finishing second last year.
Walmsley arrives as another of the leading contenders. The American became the first US man to win UTMB in 2023 and followed that success with victory in the 2025 OCC.
Bouillard, meanwhile, returns as the 2024 UTMB champion and arrives with a major recent result behind him after winning the 2026 Western States Endurance Run and setting a new course record.
British women’s FIELD
While much of the attention around the UTMB women’s race will focus on the likes of Ruth Croft, Courtney Dauwalter and Riley Brady, Britain has a strong presence across the three UTMB World Series Finals.
Fiona Pascall heads the British women’s contingent in the flagship UTMB. The former GB international has already enjoyed an impressive 2026 season, finishing second overall and first woman at the Lake Sonoma 100K in California in April in 10:13:24. She also won the women’s race at the Centurion Hundred Hills 50K in March.
Pascall then produced another strong performance at the Western States 100 in June, finishing fifth woman in 17:21:52 and 17th overall. That result gives her particularly strong recent 100-mile form heading into Chamonix. (UTMB World Series)
She will be joined in the UTMB field by Julia Davies, Eleanor Davies and Victoria Stansfield, giving Britain four female representatives in the 100-mile race.
CCC: Hillier-Moses arrives as a former winner in 2026
Gemma Hillier-Moses is the standout British name in the CCC field. Her season began with an emphatic victory at January’s Arc 50, where she won the 80.5km race in 8:12:56, finishing eighth overall. (UTMB World Series)
She followed that with fourth woman at the Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB’s 118.9km race in March, before returning to the 50K distance to win the Monistrail at Trail du Saint-Jacques by UTMB in June. Hillier-Moses covered the 55km course in 4:40:15, finishing 14th overall. (UTMB World Series)
She will be joined in the CCC by Eve Moore, Scarlet Dale and Imogen Ainsworth.
Moore has also produced a mixed but interesting season. She won the 51.3km Keswick Mountain Festival Trail Race in May in 5:05:12, before recording a DNF at the 80km Lavaredo Ultra Trail by UTMB in June. Earlier in the year she finished seventh woman at the Chianti Ultra Trail 118.9km. (UTMB World Series)
Dale comes to Chamonix as the 2026 British Middle Distance Trail Running Champion, winning the 48km trial race in April in 4:27:31. She subsequently represented Great Britain at the European Athletics Off-Road Running Championships in Slovenia, finishing 14th in the 52km race in 5:02:28. (British Athletics)
Ainsworth brings extensive experience of racing at altitude in the United States. In July she finished third woman at the Never Summer 60K in Colorado, running 7:12:03, behind Eva Keohane and Lucy Bartholomew. (opensplittime.org)
OCC: Lang heads a strong British group
The OCC contains another particularly interesting British contingent, headed by Naomi Lang.
Lang won the women’s 23.5km Pitz Alpine Glacier Trail race in August in 1:49:51 and had earlier finished third woman at the 42km du Mont-Blanc in June, running 4:21:23. She also took bronze in the women’s short-trail race at the 2025 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships, underlining her credentials over the fast, technical terrain that the OCC will provide. (UTMB World Series)
Lang will be joined by Jemima Farley, Holly Page and Holly Wootten.
Farley arrives after a 2026 victory at the XTERRA Gozo Trails 52K, where she won the women’s race in 4:27:56. (UTMB World Series)
Page has also won in 2026, taking the women’s race at the 35km Crazy Trail des Crêtes du Brevon in May in 4:34:25. She subsequently recorded a DNF at the 42.4km Marathon des Rochers-de-Naye in June. (UTMB World Series)
Wootten has raced the 42km du Mont-Blanc this summer, finishing ninth woman in 4:53:04. She also has a major recent ultra achievement behind her, having won the women’s Dragon’s Back Race in 2025 and set a new women’s course record. (UTMB World Series)
There is also British representation in the MCC, with Imogen Boddy lining up for the 40km race. Boddy has raced twice in 2026, finishing fourth woman at the 42km Ultramediterrània in January in 5:23:13. (UTMB World Series)
The depth of British representation is therefore considerable, with 12 British women in the three World Series Finals races, plus Boddy in the MCC.
British Men’s Field
Britain will also have several strong contenders in the men’s UTMB field, led by Josh Wade, who returns to Chamonix after a breakthrough third-place finish in 2025.
Wade crossed the line in 20:05:06 last year, finishing behind Tom Evans and Ben Dhiman, and will be looking to build on one of the best British performances in recent UTMB history. The North Face athlete returns to Chamonix after his breakthrough third-place finish at UTMB in 2025. The British runner has continued that form into 2026, finishing third at the 126km Transgrancanaria Classic in March before winning the 78km Eryri 80K at Ultra-Trail Snowdonia by UTMB in May. (UTMB World Series)
Veteran Andy Symonds will also bring considerable experience to the start line. Now competing in the 45–49 age category, Symonds has enjoyed an impressive 2026 season. The British veteran has won both the 125km Grand Raid Ventoux by UTMB in April and the 105km La Grande Traversée at the Grand Raid du Guillestrois-Queyras in July, while also finishing fifth at the Lake District 48K and 33rd at the European Athletics Off-Road Running Championships 52K. (UTMB World Series)
Jonathan Albon arrives in Chamonix with three wins from four UTMB-indexed races in 2026. The British runner opened his season with victory in the 125km Transgrancanaria Classic in March, running 12:58:08 to finish ahead of Hannes Namberger, with fellow Briton Josh Wade third. He followed that with wins at the 56km Eryri 50K at Ultra-Trail Snowdonia by UTMB in May and the 20km Molde 7 Peaks later that month. Albon’s most recent outing was less successful, however, as he recorded a DNF at June’s 90 Km du Mont-Blanc (part of the Marathon du Mont-Blanc). With a UTMB Index of 939, he remains one of the highest-rated runners in the field and brings significant experience of racing around Mont-Blanc, including his CCC victory in 2023 and OCC win in 2021. (UTMB World Series)
Image courtesy UTMB: Josh Wade 2025
Defending champion Evans absent
One notable omission from this year’s UTMB field is defending champion Tom Evans. The British runner was confirmed in March as returning to Chamonix to defend his 2025 title, having become the first British man to win the race last year. However, Evans does not appear in the 2026 UTMB start list and UTMB’s own announcement confirms that he is “withdrawn this year”. No explanation for his withdrawal has been given publicly.
Evans’ withdrawal comes after he dnf’d July’s Hardrock 100, with altitude understood to have played a significant role in his decision to abandon the race. Evans had devoted considerable preparation to the extreme elevations in Colorado, including simulated-altitude training, but had previously spoken about the difficulty of predicting how his body would respond at altitude.
Croft and Dauwalter headline women’s race
The women’s UTMB promises one of the most closely watched battles of the week, with defending champion Ruth Croft facing three-time winner Courtney Dauwalter.
Croft will attempt to defend her title against Dauwalter, while Riley Brady, China’s Fuzhao Xiang, Nepal’s Sunmaya Budha and American Abby Hall are all expected to challenge for the podium.
Britain’s Fiona Pascall will line up in the 174km race and arrives in Chamonix with strong 100-mile form. Pascall finished fifth woman at this year’s Western States 100 in 17:21:52, following an impressive second-place overall finish and women’s victory at the Lake Sonoma 100 in April. Her recent experience over the distance makes her an interesting British contender in a formidable field.
French runner Blandine L’Hirondel also brings significant experience on the course. The former Diagonale des Fous and CCC winner finished on the UTMB podium in 2023.
Australia’s Lucy Bartholomew arrives in strong form after finishing second in the 100M at this year’s La Sportiva Lavaredo Ultra Trail by UTMB, while Rachel Entrekin will face Dauwalter for the third time this season after their previous encounters at Chianti and Cocodona.
CCC title wide open
The 101km CCC will also crown a new champion after both 2025 winners, Martyna Mlynarczyk and Francesco Puppi, are absent this year.
Italy’s Cristian Minoggio heads the men’s field on UTMB Index, closely followed by American David Sinclair, who finished second in 2025.
New Zealand’s Daniel Jones, Frenchmen Benjamin Roubiol and Thomas Cardin, China’s Guangfu Meng and Poland’s Andrzej Witek will also be among the contenders.
The women’s race looks similarly open. American Jennifer Lichter arrives as one of the favourites after breaking the women’s course record at Western States in June.
She will face China’s Miao Yao, the 2025 OCC winner who has since stepped up successfully to the 100K distance, and Norway’s Yngvild Kaspersen, the 2023 CCC champion.
China’s Lingjie Chi, New Zealand’s Caitlin Fielder and South Africa’s Toni McCann, the 2024 CCC winner, complete a strong group of potential podium contenders.
Short-trail specialists take on the OCC
The 60km OCC will provide the fastest of the three Finals races, with 3,500m of elevation gain between Orsières and Chamonix.
Sweden’s Tove Alexandersson heads the women’s field. The reigning short-trail world champion will face Swiss specialists Judith Wyder and Maude Mathys, with American Lauren Gregory, Britain’s Naomi Lang and Olympic marathon bronze medallist Molly Seidel also entered.
The men’s OCC field is headed by an exceptionally strong trio.
Swiss athlete Rémi Bonnet leads the start list, joined by Italy’s Francesco Puppi and France’s Frédéric Tranchand. Bonnet will be seeking to make amends for his 2024 OCC, when he abandoned after a fall while running in the lead group.
Puppi arrives with recent experience of winning in Chamonix after taking the 2025 CCC, while Tranchand is the reigning short-trail world champion.
Daniel Pattis, Petter Engdahl and Roberto Delorenzi add further depth to a field capable of producing a closely fought race.
A record-sized elite field
Across the three UTMB World Series Finals races, the 2026 edition will feature:
- 846 elite athletes, 34 more than in 2025
- 46% women, up four percentage points on 2025
- 54 nationalities
- 68% European athletes
- 34% from France, Switzerland or Italy
- Average age of 34
- Youngest athlete: 20
- Oldest athlete: 54
With the return of several UTMB Legends alongside a growing group of younger contenders, the 2026 HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc is set to offer three very different battles for the World Series titles — from the 174km test of the UTMB to the speed-focused OCC.
All photos courtesy of UTMB; Header image Katharina Hartmuth 2025
