TCS, the Sponsor Behind London and New York, Signs On With the Rio Marathon

Tata Consultancy Services, the Indian technology company whose name runners know from the London, New York and Sydney marathons, has signed its first deal with a Latin American marathon. TCS announced on Nov. 11 that it will be the Rio Marathon’s official AI and technology partner, beginning with the race’s 25th edition in May 2027.

Rio becomes the 14th running event in the TCS portfolio. Five of those are World Marathon Majors, including title deals in New York, London and Sydney and a technology consulting role in Boston. The company says it will bring artificial intelligence, data analytics and digital tools to the Brazilian race, though it has not yet said what runners will actually see on race day. The closest model is Paris, where TCS took the same title on a three-year deal in April 2025 and listed personalized AI coaching, performance insights and immersive race experiences among its first projects.

“Expanding this strategy to the Rio Marathon makes for a natural evolution,” said Abhinav Kumar, TCS’s chief marketing and communications officer. Duda Magalhães, president of the event promoter Dream Factory, said the partnership “creates new opportunities to enhance the runners’ experience.”

A Race That Has Grown Fast

The 2026 festival, held over four days from June 4 to 7, handed out a record 70,000 bibs across the 5K, 10K, half-marathon and marathon, and around 15,000 people finished the full distance. Close to three in four participants came from outside the city, and a study by the Fundação Getulio Vargas put the event’s economic impact at R$711 million (about $129 million).

Organizers have also put money into the elite race, raising the marathon purse to $270,000, the largest in Latin America, and the race earned its first World Athletics Elite Label. Ethiopia’s Tsegaye Getachew won the men’s race in 2:10:22 this year, and his compatriot Gadise Mulu Demissie ran 2:25:47, the fastest women’s marathon ever run in Brazil.

On Nov. 3, Brand Finance placed Rio 10th in its annual ranking of the world’s strongest marathon brands, up one spot from last year and the only Latin American race in the top 10. MH has looked at which marathons are the most valuable in the world, and what puts them there.

Rio and the World Marathon Majors

Representatives of the World Marathon Majors visited the race in June, the series’ first visit to a South American event, and CEO Dawna Stone said afterward that the trip was about the two organizations learning from each other, not an assessment, as Bloomberg Línea reported in July. Rio has not applied, and its organizers are careful about how they describe the race’s status.

“Rio de Janeiro is not a candidate city yet,” Magalhães told the outlet. His aim is to have the race ready if the series comes looking, knowing that an invitation would mean three more years of scrutiny: one diagnostic edition and two assessed ones before a decision.

Sydney joined the series in 2025, and Cape Town was confirmed as the eighth Major on June 10 this year. Shanghai, the only official candidate, faces its final assessment at its Dec. 6 race. A yes there would make it nine, and the Six Star medal would keep growing with it.

Foreign runners made up only about 8 percent of Rio’s 2026 entry, most of them from Argentina and Chile, which is the clearest gap between Rio and that group. Dream Factory has said it sees the U.S. market as its biggest opportunity, with plans to promote the race at the expos in New York, Berlin and Boston.

The 25th edition runs May 27 to 30, 2027, over Brazil’s Corpus Christi holiday, with the marathon course running from Recreio dos Bandeirantes to Aterro do Flamengo. Places in the 2027 marathon were allocated by ballot, with registration open from Aug. 31 to Sept. 13. Race day falls one week after Cape Town stages its first race as a Major on May 23.