2026 Chicago Marathon Elite Field: Brigid Kosgei

Brigid Kosgei has started the Chicago Marathon three times and has never finished lower than second. The last of those starts, in 2019, produced a 2:14:04 world record that held for almost four years, and on Sunday, Oct. 11, the 32-year-old Kenyan returns to Chicago for the first time since, coming off a course record at the Tokyo Marathon in March that was her fastest run in seven years.

Brigid Kosgei at a Glance

Country: Kenya
Born: Feb. 20, 1994 (age 32)

Personal Bests

• Marathon: 2:14:04 (Chicago, Oct. 13, 2019)
• Half-marathon: 1:04:49 (Ras Al Khaimah, Feb. 21, 2020)
• 10K: 30:58 (Atlanta, July 4, 2022)

Her fastest half-marathon is the 1:04:28 she ran at the 2019 Great North Run, but the course is not eligible for records, so it does not count as her official best.

Records

• Marathon world record: 2:14:04 (Chicago, 2019). Beaten in 2023, when Tigst Assefa ran 2:11:53 in Berlin. Ruth Chepngetich’s 2:09:56 from Chicago in 2024 is the current record.
• Chicago Marathon course record: 2:14:04 (2019). Beaten in 2023 by Sifan Hassan (2:13:44), and now held by Chepngetich (2:09:56).
• Tokyo Marathon course record: 2:14:29 (2026). Current.
• Abu Dhabi Marathon course record: 2:19:15 (2023). Current.
• Great North Run course record: 1:04:28 (2019). Current.

Major Marathon Podiums

• Wins (6): Chicago 2018 and 2019, London 2019 and 2020, Tokyo 2022 and 2026
• Runner-up (2): Chicago 2017, London 2018

Championships

• Olympic Games: silver in the marathon at the Tokyo 2020 Games (2:27:36, run in Sapporo in 2021)

2026 Season

• Tokyo Marathon, March 1: first, 2:14:29
• Great North Run, Sept. 13: first, 1:06:15

From Kapsowar to Chicago

Kosgei grew up in Sinon, a village near Kapsowar in Kenya’s Elgeyo-Marakwet County. Her primary school was 10 kilometers (about 6.2 miles) from home, and she told Olympics.com that she would run the distance when she was at risk of being late. She left secondary school in Form Three, in 2012, once the family’s unpaid fees had passed $1,500 and her mother was borrowing to keep her enrolled. “For how long will we keep borrowing?” she remembered asking her mother, according to The Star in Nairobi.

She began training alongside Mathew Kosgei, who is now her husband, and their twins, Faith and Brian, were born in 2014, the Nation reported. She went back to running the following year and won her first marathon, in Porto in November 2015, by more than four minutes.

A second marathon win followed in Milan in 2016, and the climb from there was quick: second in Chicago in 2017 in 2:20:22, second again at the London Marathon the next spring, and then a win back in Chicago that October in 2:18:35. In 2019 she won London and ran 1:04:28 at the Great North Run, the fastest half-marathon any woman had run at that point, though the course meant it could never count as a record.

On Oct. 13, 2019, back in Chicago, Kosgei went through halfway in 1:06:59 and hardly slowed, finishing in 2:14:04 to take 81 seconds off Paula Radcliffe’s 2:15:25 from 2003. Ababel Yeshaneh was second, almost six minutes behind. “I ran here last year so I knew it was a good course,” Kosgei said afterward. “There was a little bit of wind but it was okay. People were cheering all along the course, which gave me more energy.”

The Years Since the Record

Kosgei won London again in 2020 and took Olympic silver in Sapporo the following August, only 16 seconds behind Peres Jepchirchir. She was fourth in London in October 2021 and won Tokyo in March 2022 in 2:16:02.

A right hamstring problem took her out of the London Marathon that October. “My training has been up and down and not the way I would like to prepare to be in top condition for the Sunday Marathon,” she said at the time. She started London in April 2023 but stopped within the first four minutes with hamstring and knee trouble, and five months later Tigst Assefa ran 2:11:53 in Berlin to take the world record.

That December she won her first marathon in almost two years, in Abu Dhabi, with a course record of 2:19:15. She was fifth in London in 2024, and in 2025 she ran second in Hamburg (2:18:26, just 31 seconds behind Workenesh Edesa) and second at the Sydney Marathon (2:18:56, 34 seconds behind Sifan Hassan). On Nov. 30 she won Shanghai in 2:16:36. No woman had run a faster marathon in China, and it was her best time since Tokyo in 2022.

Kosgei also sought to switch her allegiance to Turkey. World Athletics turned her application down on April 16, along with 10 others, saying they formed part of “a coordinated recruitment strategy led by the Türkiye government acting through a wholly-owned and financed government club.” She races Chicago for Kenya.

What to Expect in Chicago

On March 1 in Tokyo, Kosgei broke away after 20 miles and won in 2:14:29, taking 1:26 off Sutume Kebede’s course record from 2024 and finishing more than two minutes clear of Bertukan Welde. Three of the women behind her that day are in Sunday’s field: Hawi Feysa was third in 2:17:39, Kebede fourth in the same time, and Megertu Alemu fifth in 2:18:50.

Her last race was a half-marathon on Sept. 13 at the Great North Run, which she won in 1:06:15, more than two minutes ahead of Sheila Chepkirui. “I have come here to test my body and see how it will be for the Chicago Marathon,” she told K24 Digital. “I want to test my speed and how my body responds.”

Her 2:14:04 is the fastest personal best in the women’s elite field by 53 seconds. Feysa, the defending champion, won last year in 2:14:57, and Kosgei’s Tokyo time was 28 seconds quicker than that. In all, the field has 12 women who have broken 2:20 and seven who have gone under 2:18, as LetsRun counted. Sharon Lokedi, who has won the Boston Marathon the past two years, is running her first flat major, and Kebede and Alemu both have bests under 2:17.

Ruth Chepngetich’s course record of 2:09:56 from 2024 sits well beyond anything Kosgei has run, so the realistic targets on Sunday are a third Chicago title and, if the weather and the pacing allow, a first personal best in seven years. The women’s elite race starts at 7:30 a.m. CT, with the full fields in our Chicago Marathon guide and the TV and streaming details in how to watch the race.