2026 Chicago Marathon Elite Field: Hawi Feysa

Last October’s Chicago Marathon was Hawi Feysa’s first race in the United States, and she ran most of the second half of it alone, won by more than two minutes and finished in 2:14:57, a time only four women in history had bettered at that point. The 27-year-old Ethiopian comes back to Grant Park on Sunday, Oct. 11, as defending champion and the second-fastest woman in a deep women’s field, with the fastest of them, Brigid Kosgei, also the one runner who has had the better of her when they have met.

Hawi Feysa by the Numbers

Personal Bests

• Marathon: 2:14:57 (Chicago, Oct. 12, 2025)
• Half-marathon: 1:05:41 (Copenhagen, Sept. 19, 2021)
• 10,000m: 31:03.32 (June 6, 2022)
• 5,000m: 14:33.66 (June 16, 2022)
• 3,000m: 8:38.48 (Aug. 26, 2022)

Records

• Frankfurt Marathon course record: 2:17:25 (2024). Still stands; last year’s winner, Buze Diriba, ran 2:19:34.
• All-time list: her 2:14:57 ranked fifth in women’s marathon history when she ran it. Fotyen Tesfay has since moved ahead of her with 2:10:51 on her debut in Barcelona in March.
• World records: none held.

Wins and Podiums

• First: Chicago Marathon (2025), Frankfurt Marathon (2024)
• Second: Abu Dhabi Marathon (2023), Copenhagen Half Marathon (2021)
• Third: Tokyo Marathon (2025 and 2026)

Championships

• Silver: under-20 race, World Cross Country Championships (Kampala, 2017)
• Silver: 5,000m, African Games (Rabat, 2019)
• Eighth: 5,000m, World Championships (Doha, 2019)

Every Marathon She Has Run

Date	Race	Place	Time
Jan. 24, 2020	Dubai Marathon	6th	2:23:36
Dec. 16, 2023	Abu Dhabi Marathon	2nd	2:24:03
Oct. 27, 2024	Frankfurt Marathon	1st	2:17:25
March 2, 2025	Tokyo Marathon	3rd	2:17:00
Oct. 12, 2025	Chicago Marathon	1st	2:14:57
March 1, 2026	Tokyo Marathon	3rd	2:17:39

From Ambo to the World Championships

Feysa grew up on a farm in Ambo, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Addis Ababa in the Oromia region, where her parents raise cattle and horses. Her school was only a kilometer from home, so she did her early training on a set circuit through Ambo, alongside boys older than her, with a regional coach lending a hand when she entered local races, according to a profile German Road Races published after her Frankfurt win. She left for Addis Ababa at 16 to join a club.

By 18 she was racing for Ethiopia, and she came home from the 2017 World Cross Country Championships in Kampala with silver in the under-20 race, 23 seconds behind her teammate Letesenbet Gidey. In 2019 she ran the 5,000m for her country twice. At the African Games in Rabat she lost the title to Kenya’s Lilian Kasait Rengeruk by just 0.36 seconds, and in the world final in Doha she finished eighth in 14:44.92.

Her best marks at 3,000m, 5,000m and 10,000m all came in 2022, but she was getting hurt too often. “I was injured quite often, so I decided to switch to road running,” she told German Road Races.

The Slow Build to Frankfurt

Feysa was still 20 when she ran her first marathon, finishing sixth in Dubai in 2:23:36 in January 2020. She spent most of the next four years on the track and in half-marathons, and the best of those, 1:05:41 for second behind Tsehay Gemechu in Copenhagen in September 2021, is still her personal best. When she came back to the marathon in Abu Dhabi in December 2023, she ran 2:24:03 and finished second, nearly five minutes behind Kosgei.

In Frankfurt in October 2024 she went through halfway in 1:09:19 in a group of five, then ran the second half more than a minute quicker and won by 1:33 in 2:17:25. That took more than six minutes off her best and 1:45 off the course record. “The record was my goal and everything went perfectly,” she said in the organizers’ race report. Last year’s winner, Buze Diriba, ran into strong headwinds and finished more than two minutes outside it.

By then Feysa was training in coach Gemedu Dedefo’s group in Addis Ababa, whose members include Tigst Assefa, now the women-only world record holder, and Amane Beriso, the 2023 world champion. Five months after Frankfurt she lowered her best again, to 2:17:00, with third place in Tokyo, where she and Kenya’s Winfridah Moseti reached 40K together and Moseti edged her for second by four seconds.

Last Year in Chicago

The plan in Chicago was for her training partner Chala Beyo Techo to pace her all the way to 40K, but he had to stop well before then. “It was windy, and then Chala had to stop, so by 30k I was alone. That was the hardest part,” she told Citius Mag after the race.

She went through halfway in 1:07:30, and by 30K she had dropped Tanzania’s Magdalena Shauri and moved clear of Megertu Alemu. Her second half was 1:07:27, three seconds quicker than the first, and she won by 2:21 from Alemu (2:17:18), with Shauri third in 2:18:03. The time took just over two minutes off her best and put her fifth on the all-time list, behind only Ruth Chepngetich, Assefa, Sifan Hassan and Kosgei, Track & Field News reported. Our report from the race has the full story of the day.

She did not see the pace as a stretch. “I am teammates of Tigst Assefa, and Amane Beriso and we are training at times like 2:13 or 2:14,” she told reporters afterward, according to Track & Field News.

Her only marathon since then was Tokyo on March 1, where she was third again, in 2:17:39. Sutume Kebede crossed the line in the same time for fourth, Alemu was fifth, and Kosgei won on her own in a course record of 2:14:29, 3:10 ahead of Feysa.

What to Expect From Her in Chicago

Kosgei won Chicago in 2018 and 2019, set a world record of 2:14:04 here in the second of those wins, and comes in with the only personal best in the field quicker than Feysa’s. In Abu Dhabi in 2023 and again in Tokyo in March, the Kenyan finished minutes ahead of her.

Against Megertu Alemu, the fourth-fastest woman entered at 2:16:34, Feysa has won each of their last two meetings, and she matched Kebede (2:15:55) to the second in Tokyo in March, a year after Kebede beat her there. Sharon Lokedi, who has won Boston in each of the last two years, has a best of 2:17:22 from Boston’s hilly course and is running Chicago for the first time.

In both Frankfurt and Chicago she ran the second half faster than the first and did her damage after halfway, a style that suits a flat course with good pacing. Chepngetich’s course record of 2:09:56 carries a $50,000 bonus on top of the $100,000 for first place, though no woman in this year’s field has a best within four minutes of it.

Feysa has been clear about which of her goals comes first. “Chicago is known for being fast and fiercely competitive, so I hope to run a personal best,” she said when the field was announced in July. “But the most important thing is to fight for a place on the podium.”