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Who won the Boston Marathon in 2026? Meet John Korir, Sharon Lokedi and other winners from every division originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Boston Marathon has crowned its newest champions. Or, in this year's case, mostly repeat champions.
Legacies began to take shape this year with the men's and women's runners both going back-to-back for their second straight Boston Marathon win. This is also without mentioning the men's wheelchair division and Marcel Hug's ninth Boston Marathon win in 12 years.
Women's handcyclist Edie Perkins was the only one of these six winners to take home gold for the first time.
Here's everything to know about how these runners reached this moment of glory.
MORE: Boston Marathon final results, updated list of the top five finishers in each division
Who won the Boston Marathon in 2026?
Men's runner winner: John Korir (Kenya)
John Korir is one of the top runners in the sport, clinching his second Boston Marathon win in a row. Korir also won the Chicago Marathon in 2024. With his course record-breaking finish in 2026, John Korir set the fifth-fastest running marathon time in history at 2:01:52.
This makes him the second Korir brother to win the Boston Marathon, following his brother Wesley's win in 2012.
The Korir brothers grew up in Kitale, a city in Western Kenya with a population of around 160,000. Wesley Korir founded the Kenyan Kids Foundation, a charity that looks to combat generational poverty in Kenya.
MORE: Full course details, road closures for Boston Marathon route map
Women's runner winner: Sharon Lokedi (Kenya)
The lead was tight throughout most of the women's race, but Lokedi pulled ahead at the end, cementing a 44-second margin in her marathon win. Lokedi has dominated marathons for years, winning her very first, the New York City Marathon, in 2022.
While at Kansas, Lokedi competed in cross country and track and field. She was the Big 12 Women's Runner of the Year in 2016 and 2017. She still holds five school records at Kansas, including the 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
Lokedi grew up in Burnt Forest, Kenya, a small town in the western part of the country.
Men's wheelchair winner: Marcel Hug (Switzerland)
Hug has been dubbed "The Silver Bullet." If there was ever any question as to why, just look at the 6:38 margin of victory in Hug's ninth Boston Marathon win.
Alongside these marathon wins, Hug also has 16 Paralympic medals dating back to 2004. Among these are seven gold medals earned across Rio, Tokyo and Paris. He has also won 13 World Championship gold medals from 2006-2025.
Hug began wheelchair racing at 10 years old after being born with spina bifida, a condition that does not allow his spine to properly develop.
MORE: How much do winners of the Boston Marathon make?
Women's wheelchair winner: Eden Rainbow-Cooper (UK)
The 24-year-old Eden Rainbow-Cooper has been wheelchair racing for over 10 years and won her first Boston Marathon in 2024. The first English woman to win gold, she secured her second title in 2026.
She also competed in the Paralympic Games in Paris, finishing seventh in the 1500m. In 2022, Rainbow-Cooper tied the half-marathon course record at London's Big Half race.
Rainbow-Cooper was born with sacral agenesis, a condition that causes abnormal development in the lower spine.
Men's handcycles winner: Zachary Stinson (USA)
This win marks Stinson's fourth at the Boston Marathon. His first came back in 2021, with Stinson winning two-thirds of the Boston Marathon events this decade.
Stinson lost his legs while serving with the Marines in Afghanistan. He stepped on an improvised explosive device and was flown back to the U.S., where he eventually recovered.
"I stepped down with my left leg and I was like a pogo stick in the air," Stinson told Alex Thill of Local21 News.
He later began handcycling at the hospital to recover, later becoming one of the world's best and competing across the globe.
Women's handcycles winner: Edie Perkins (USA)
Edie Perkins first competed in the Boston Marathon in 2005, finishing 25th out of the women's runners. She also ran a sub-three-hour marathon in New York City.
In 2017, however, Perkins was struck by a driver while riding her bike, rendering her paralyzed from the chest down. Within eight months, she completed a half-marathon on a handcycle, she told Pam Moore of SELF Magazine.
Now having competed in several Boston Marathons as a handcyclist, Perkins claims her first victory at 55 years old.
Perkins previously served as Executive Director for the Kelly Brush Foundation, which seeks to empower people with spinal cord injuries to lead active lives.
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