The Only Runner Alive Who Has Won the Olympics, Boston and New York

Picture credit : KEVIN MORRIS

There is a statistic about Peres Jepchirchir that sounds like a typing error.

In an eight-month span across 2021 and 2022, the Kenyan won the Olympic marathon, the Boston Marathon, and the New York City Marathon.

She is the only person in history to have won all three in a career, let alone in eight months.

On August 30, she headlines the women's elite field at the TCS Sydney Marathon.

The Career, Compressed

Jepchirchir won Olympic gold at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games, where the marathon was moved to Sapporo over heat concerns.

She crossed in 2:27:20.

New York followed in November 2021.

Boston followed in April 2022.

In April 2024 she won the London Marathon in 2:16:16, setting a women's-only world record and taking almost a full minute off her own personal best.

The previous mark had stood to Mary Keitany since 2017.

Then came a difficult stretch.

She finished 14th at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and did not race a marathon at all through the following season.

Tokyo, September 2025

She arrived at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo having not contested a marathon all year.

Conditions were punishing, with temperatures around 28 degrees Celsius and high humidity at the start.

She and Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa, the world record holder, pulled clear of the field before 30 kilometres and stayed locked together for more than 12 kilometres.

They entered the Japan National Stadium shoulder to shoulder. Assefa surged on the back straight with roughly 250 metres left.

Jepchirchir came back at her over the final 100 metres and won by two seconds in 2:24:43.

Afterwards she said she had not expected to win, and that she found hidden energy in the last 100 metres.

Uruguay's Julia Paternain took bronze and became her nation's first ever world championship medallist in athletics.

Why a Sprint Finish Is So Rare in the Marathon

Championship marathons usually break apart gradually.

One athlete makes a decisive move somewhere between 30 and 38 kilometres, and the gap grows.

A genuine sprint after 42 kilometres in high heat means both athletes ran the entire race within their limits, which almost never happens at that level.

It also tells you something specific about Jepchirchir.

Her defining quality is not raw speed, it is the ability to still have a finishing gear when everyone else is empty.

That is a trained capacity, not a gift, and it comes from running the middle of a race conservatively enough to have something left.

The same principle applies at every level, as explored in how to run negative splits for race day success.

The Field Behind Her

Sydney's women's field is deep in a way that reflects the race's new Major status.

Race organisers published the tiers.

• 24 women with personal bests under 2:26:00
• 20 women under 2:22:00
• 13 women under 2:20:00
• 9 women under 2:19:00
• 5 women faster than the existing course record of 2:18:22
• 2 women who have broken 2:17:00

The Names to Know

Irine Cheptai of Kenya is a Tokyo 2020 Olympian and 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist over 10,000m. She won the Hamburg Marathon on her debut in 2024, then took third at Chicago in a personal best of 2:17:51.

Magdalena Shauri of Tanzania is the national record holder and finished third at the 2025 Chicago Marathon.

Three women in the field have already won marathons in 2026. Stella Chesang of Uganda won the Osaka Women's Marathon in January, becoming the first Ugandan woman to win a World Athletics Platinum Label marathon.

Ruti Aga of Ethiopia defended her Xiamen Marathon title the same month. Haven Hailu, also of Ethiopia, won the Seoul Marathon in March in 2:19:09, leading an all-Ethiopian podium.

Then there is Vivian Cheruiyot, a four-time Olympic medallist and multiple world champion, who finished fifth at the 2025 London Marathon.

The Australian Race

The domestic women's championship is contested inside the same event, with the richest prize purse in Australian marathon history and a $10,000 bonus for breaking Sinead Diver's national record of 2:21:34.

Tokyo Olympian Ellie Pashley and 2025 Melbourne Marathon winner Caitlin Scott lead the Australian entries.

The Record They Are Chasing

The women's course record is 2:18:22, set by Sifan Hassan in 2025 on the race's debut as an Abbott World Marathon Major.

That run cut more than three minutes off the previous mark of 2:21:41, set by Workenesh Edesa in 2024.

Hassan won ahead of former world record holder Brigid Kosgei, who ran 2:18:56.

Hassan was refreshingly blunt afterwards about how she got there.

She pushed too hard early, knew at the time it was unwise, and only just held on over the final five kilometres.

Why the Course Complicates Everything

Sydney carries roughly 313 metres of elevation gain, more than any other Major.

The final significant climb arrives around 38 to 40 kilometres, near Mrs Macquarie's Chair.

Five women in the 2026 field have run faster than 2:18:22 somewhere. Running it here is a different proposition entirely.

The likely scenario is a tactical race decided on that late climb rather than a time trial. Which, given Jepchirchir's finishing speed, suits her precisely.

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What to Watch

The halfway split is the tell. In 2025 the women's lead group came through in 1:10:01 on the way to a 2:18:22.

If the 2026 group is anywhere near that, the record is live.

If they go out conservatively, the race becomes a straight fight over the last four kilometres.

Either way, a runner who has already won the Olympics, Boston, New York, London and a world title is not an athlete you want to be next to at kilometre 41.

The complete confirmed women's field is published in the official TCS Sydney Marathon field announcement, and the 2025 course record report is available from World Athletics.

If Sydney has you thinking about your own first marathon, start with 10 essential things to know before running your first marathon.

The women's race starts with everyone else at 6:30am on August 30.