The 2027 U.S. Marathon Championships Are Moving to Chicago

USA Track & Field will crown its 2027 national marathon champions inside the Chicago Marathon, with a field of 20 men and 20 women racing for the titles on the course where both current American records were set: Conner Mantz’s 2:04:43 last October and Emily Sisson’s 2:18:29 in 2022. The federation announced the move on Wednesday, and the titles will be decided on Oct. 10, 2027.

The championship comes to Chicago after two years at the California International Marathon in Sacramento, which hosted it in 2025, hosts it again on Dec. 6 and also staged it in 2017, 2018 and 2022. Last December, Futsum Zienasellassie won the men’s title there in 2:09:29 and Molly Born took the women’s in 2:24:09, a CIM course record. Each earned $20,000 from a championship purse worth $116,500 in total. Chicago’s will come to nearly $110,000, according to USATF, spread across the top 10 finishers in each race, and the federation has not broken down what each place earns.

For the athletes, the bigger prize may be what a title is worth in St. Louis, which hosts the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials on March 25, 2028. Under USATF’s Trials qualifying procedures, the 2027 national champions earn the Trials “A” standard, which brings travel funding along with entry. Everyone else needs the “B” standard of 2:16:00 for men and 2:37:00 for women, run inside a window that opened on Sept. 1, 2025, and shuts 45 to 60 days before the Trials, which makes fall 2027 the last autumn of racing before it closes. Half-marathon times of 1:03:00 and 1:12:00 also count from Jan. 1, 2027, and MH has a full breakdown of the qualifying routes.

USATF chief executive Max Siegel said the championship “will be a major part of ensuring Team USA is built for LA 2028.”

USATF has not yet published how the 40 athletes will be chosen or how entry will work, saying only that its existing selection rules will apply. The Americans will start alongside Chicago’s international professionals, and the local organizing committee for the championship is Chicago Event Management, the company that already runs the marathon.

“This is our opportunity to ensure Team USA’s top runners can compete in a world class field and in a world class race as they prepare for a big year in 2028,” said Carey Pinkowski, the Chicago Marathon’s executive race director.

Chicago’s High Performance Program will hold 300 runners in 2027, and USATF says the larger size is for athletes still hunting a Trials time. The race capped the program at 150 for 2025, the most recent year it published a limit, and took men under 2:25:00 and women under 2:45:00, with slightly slower cutoffs for masters runners. Its members line up in their own corral between the professionals and Corral A, get a separate start time, and have a dedicated hospitality tent before the gun. Those entry marks sit well outside the Trials times, so in practice the program gives a runner closing in on 2:16 or 2:37 a clear road on a flat, fast Chicago course. Runners hoping for a regular guaranteed entry can check Chicago’s age-group qualifying times.

Fans can watch the championship on NBC in Chicago and on Peacock elsewhere in the U.S., and USATF says some cameras will stay on the Americans racing for titles. Entry applications for the 2027 race, the 49th Chicago Marathon, went live Thursday morning for both guaranteed and non-guaranteed places and stay open until 2 p.m. Central on Oct. 29, and our guide to applying for the 2027 race covers each way in. Before any of that, the 2026 edition is on Sunday, and Charles Hicks, Clayton Young and Vinny Mauri, each of whom ran 2:05:54 or faster in April, are in the elite field with Mantz’s American record in their sights.