2026 New York City Marathon Elite Field: Andreas Almgren

Andreas Almgren has had the kind of year most distance runners spend a career chasing. The 31-year-old Swede won the European 10,000m title in Birmingham in August, then took the world half-marathon crown in Copenhagen a month later in 58:06, a European record. On Nov. 1 he lines up in New York for his first marathon, and it really is his first: he has never covered the full distance in a race or in training.

Kenya’s Patrick Kiprop and American Ahmed Muhumed are also making their debuts in the professional field, but Almgren is the only first-timer who arrives with a world title.

Andreas Almgren at a Glance

Personal Bests

• 800m: 1:45.59 (Sollentuna, 2015)
• 1,500m: 3:32.00 (Oslo, 2023)
• 3,000m: 7:26.48 (Keqiao, China, 2026)
• 5,000m: 12:44.27 (Stockholm, 2025)
• 10,000m: 26:52.87 (San Juan Capistrano, Calif., 2024)
• 10K road: 26:45 (Valencia, 2026)
• Half-marathon: 58:06 (Copenhagen, 2026)
• Marathon: debut in New York

Championship Medals

• Gold, half-marathon: World Athletics Road Running Championships, Copenhagen 2026 (58:06)
• Gold, 10,000m: European Championships, Birmingham 2026 (27:23.44)
• Bronze, 10,000m: World Championships, Tokyo 2025 (28:56.02)
• Bronze, 800m: World U20 Championships, Eugene 2014 (1:45.65)

Records

• European 5,000m record: 12:44.27, Stockholm, June 15, 2025. Still current.
• European half-marathon record: 58:06, Copenhagen, Sept. 20, 2026. Still current, pending ratification. It replaced his own 58:41 from Valencia in October 2025, the first sub-59 half-marathon by a European man.
• European 10K road record: 26:45, Valencia, Jan. 11, 2026. Since beaten: France’s Yann Schrub ran 26:43 in Castellón on Feb. 22, 2026. It remains the Swedish record.
• European Championships 10,000m record: 27:23.44, Birmingham, 2026. Still current.
• Swedish records: his national records include the 3,000m, 5,000m, 10,000m, 10K road, 15K road and half-marathon outdoors, plus the indoor 3,000m (7:34.31). All still current.

Quick Facts

• Age: 31 (born June 12, 1995)
• Coach: Urban Aruhn, since 2012
• Marathons run: none
• Weekly training volume: usually around 200K

From Soccer to a World U20 Medal

Almgren grew up playing soccer, on the wing for AIK in Stockholm, and only gave the sport up at 18, when one injury after another made it clear his body would not hold up to it. Running became his full-time sport from there, as he recalled on the CITIUS MAG podcast in August.

At the 2014 World U20 Championships in Eugene he took bronze over 800m in 1:45.65, and the following winter he finished fourth in the event at the European Indoor Championships in Prague. The four years after that were mostly lost to his bones: several stress fractures, a broken navicular in his foot and, in 2019, a stress fracture in his sacrum.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are still double threshold days for Almgren, two controlled sessions at threshold pace in one day, the Norwegian method he took up while recovering from that sacral injury. The example in front of him was Kalle Berglund, a fellow Swede who had used it to make the world championship 1,500m final in 2019. Almgren plans most of his training himself and runs it past Urban Aruhn, who has coached him since 2012, according to an Athletics Weekly interview in February.

Moving Up, One Distance at a Time

Almgren has stepped up in distance steadily since then and has run faster at almost every step. He was fourth over 5,000m at the 2022 European Championships in Munich, and in March 2024 he ran 26:52.87 for 10,000m in California, which still stands as the Swedish record. That summer brought another fourth place, in the European 10,000m in Rome, and another injury: a stress reaction in his shin forced him out of the Paris Olympics the day before the 5,000m heats.

On home soil at the Stockholm Diamond League in June 2025, he won the 5,000m in 12:44.27, a European record, more than 13 seconds clear of Ethiopia’s Kuma Girma. At the World Championships in Tokyo that September he was part of a blanket finish in the 10,000m and took bronze in 28:56.02, only 0.25 seconds behind France’s Jimmy Gressier. Six weeks after that he ran 58:41 for fourth at the Valencia Half Marathon, the first time a European man had gone under 59 minutes.

A Record-Breaking 2026

In January 2026 he ran 26:45 at the 10K Valencia, his fourth European record in 12 months. He matched that time in Castellón in February but finished third, as Yann Schrub took the record from him by two seconds. In May he lowered his Swedish 3,000m record to 7:26.48 at the Diamond League opener in China.

In Birmingham in August he won the European 10,000m title in 27:23.44, a championship record, finishing more than 19 seconds ahead of the next man. At the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen on Sept. 20, he ran with Kenya’s Nicholas Kipkorir until the final 600m, then pulled away to win by five seconds in 58:06, 35 seconds quicker than the European record he had set in Valencia the previous October. Joshua Cheptegei was third. Almgren is the first European man to win the world half-marathon title in 30 years, following Belgium’s Vincent Rousseau in 1993 and Italy’s Stefano Baldini in 1996.

What to Expect From Andreas Almgren in New York

Almgren picked New York for his debut back in November 2025, he told Runner’s World Sweden, and he picked it because of how it is raced. The professional field has run without pacemakers since 2007, and with five bridges and a long climb up Fifth Avenue in the closing miles, the course rarely gives up fast times. “There are no pacers or anything, it’s just a race,” he said (translated from Swedish), adding that he thinks he can hold his own better there than in a straight time trial.

After Copenhagen he went straight to Flagstaff, Ariz., for his ninth altitude camp there, shook off a high fever in the first few days, and has since had a build that by his own account has gone better than he expected. He has run up to 40K three times, put together days of 46K across two sessions, and, as he explained to Runner’s World Sweden, has spent months training his gut to take in about 120 grams of carbohydrate an hour on long runs. Speaking to SVT on Oct. 13, he called the previous two weeks “one of the toughest training periods of my career” and said he would arrive in New York “full of confidence” (both translated from Swedish). Even with the taper underway, he still covered about 200K in a week, he told the Swedish news agency TT.

Defending champion Benson Kipruto has a best of 2:02:16, Ethiopia’s Deresa Geleta has run 2:02:38, and the Netherlands’ Abdi Nageeye won here in 2024. Several men on the start list also raced him in Copenhagen, among them Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa, who was seventh, and American record holder Conner Mantz, who raced the half as part of his own New York build and finished 12th, one place ahead of Muhumed.

Tamirat Tola’s course record of 2:04:58 dates from 2023, but the last two editions were won in 2:07:39 and 2:08:09, and a race at that kind of pace is exactly what Almgren wants. The slower the early miles, the longer his half-marathon speed stays useful heading into Central Park. He has been clear about the plan since August. “I’m thinking I’ll stick with the leaders and sprint to win,” he told SVT (translated). A fast time can wait for a flat course next year, he has said, and Suldan Hassan’s Swedish record of 2:05:57 will be the obvious mark when he gets there.

His main target beyond New York remains the 10,000m at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, though he has floated adding the marathon, which falls on the last day of those Games. TT pointed to Galen Rupp, who ran both events at the 2016 Olympics. “I’d say it’s 95 percent the 10,000. But I haven’t written off anything,” Almgren told the agency (translated). Once Los Angeles is done, he told SVT in August, he plans to switch to the marathon and the roads.

The professional men’s race starts at 9:05 a.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 1. Here’s how to watch the 2026 New York City Marathon, and you can follow every split on our live coverage on race day.