With the 2025 IAU 24-Hour World Championships set to begin Saturday in Albi, France, uncertainty surrounds the status of U.S. ultrarunner Camille Herron, who has not officially confirmed whether she will compete.
According to posts from members of the U.S. ultrarunning community, Herron has not informed USA Track & Field (USATF) that she is withdrawing from the national team, something that must happen before an alternate can be added to the roster.
Calls for Contact
On Thursday, U.S. ultrarunner Traci Falbo shared an urgent message on Facebook asking Herron to contact team leader Pam Smith by early Friday morning Paris time.
The post, which tagged USATF’s Mountain Ultra Trail division, stated that Herron “has not let anyone know whether she is coming to the World Championship or not.”
Falbo added that Stella Springer, one of the alternates, is already in France and ready to race, but cannot be added to the lineup without official confirmation that Herron is out.
Assistant team leader Bob Hearn also commented on the thread, saying that Herron needed to contact USATF directly to confirm her intentions. “USATF needs to hear from Camille,” Hearn wrote.
Community Reaction
Dozens of athletes and fans chimed in beneath Falbo’s post, expressing concern that the U.S. women’s team could be forced to compete one runner short if Herron doesn’t respond. The story quickly spread to the running forum LetsRun, where a thread titled “Camille Herron has apparently failed to turn up for the 24-Hour World Championships in France” shared the same details.
Several posters there claimed Herron had not arrived in France and cited her recent social media activity suggesting she was still in the United States.
Herron’s Recent Post
Roughly 21 hours before Falbo’s Facebook appeal, Herron posted a video to Instagram titled “Strides with a fractured wrist 💥.”
In it, she’s seen running short sprints on a sunny desert road, writing that her wrist “has healed great” after a rollerblading accident three and a half weeks ago. The post location and scenery appeared consistent with her home training base in Arizona.
Herron said in the caption that she’s been doing strides, pickups, and speedwork and believes the running has helped her recovery.
What Are The 24-Hour World Championships?
The IAU 24-Hour World Championships is one of the most prestigious events in ultrarunning, bringing together athletes from around the world to see who can cover the greatest distance in a single day. The 2025 edition takes place this weekend, October 18–19, on a 1.5-kilometer loop course in Albi, France, the same venue that hosted the 2019 world championships where Herron broke the women’s world record.
The competition doubles as both an individual and team event. Individual medals are awarded to the athletes who log the farthest total distance in 24 hours, while team standings are calculated by combining the top three performances from each nation. That means a full six-person roster provides crucial depth, since if one runner struggles or drops out, others can still keep the team in contention.
For the U.S. women’s team, losing a single spot could have meaningful consequences. The squad has historically been one of the strongest in the world, winning gold at several past editions. The current roster includes experienced veterans such as Marisa Lizak and Lauren Jones, both of whom have top-10 global performances in recent years.
Herron herself has been one of the most accomplished figures in 24-hour running. She won the world title in 2019 in Albi, setting a then-world record of 270.116 kilometers (167.842 miles). She remains the only athlete in history, male or female, to hold world titles at 50 kilometers, 100 kilometers, and 24 hours.
If she does not compete, the U.S. women’s team would field five runners instead of six, meaning all would have to finish the race for the team to record a valid cumulative result.
This year’s field is one of the deepest ever, with 397 athletes from 47 nations entered. Reigning champions Aleksandr Sorokin of Lithuania and Miho Nakata of Japan, both world record holders, will defend their titles. The women’s competition features a particularly strong lineup, with past champions Patrycja Bereznowska of Poland and Herron both listed on the entry sheet.
The event begins at 10 a.m. local time in Albi (4 a.m. ET) on Saturday, October 18, and will run through Sunday morning.e
Herron has recently been the subject of headlines after the scandal around wikipedia page editing, and her subsequent lawsuit aimed at the publisher of Canadian Running Magazine.
