Fast Racing Will be on Display at the 2024 Bank of America Chicago Marathon

Fast Racing Will be on Display at the 2024 Bank of America Chicago Marathon

CHICAGO – The professional athlete field for the 46th running of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon was announced today. It features two of the top 10 fastest women of all time, two of the world’s most exciting marathon stars racing in the United States for the first time and both defending champions in the wheelchair field.

“We are accustomed to making history at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon,” said Executive Race Director Carey Pinkowski. “With some of the fastest athletes in the world joining us this fall, we are hopeful to build on the tradition of great performances this year.”

This year’s fastest women’s marathoner, Sutume Kebede of Ethiopia, leads the women’s field. Her 2:15:55 victory in the 2024 Tokyo Marathon makes her the eighth fastest woman of all time. That performance came just two months after Kebede set the record for fastest half marathon ever completed in the United States at the Aramco Houston Half Marathon in January with her winning time of 1:04:37.

“I am extremely happy to come back to Chicago and run on a course that has proven to be very fast,” said Kebede, who had a disappointing finish in the 2023 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. “After seeing what my teammate Kelvin Kiptum did last year, I want to come to Chicago to do something great.”

Kebede is part of a training group that once included the late Kelvin Kiptum. Kiptum was killed in a car crash this past February, just four months after setting the marathon world record at the 2023 Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

Kebede will face the fourth fastest woman in history, Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya. Chepngetich, the 2021 and 2022 Chicago champion, was runner up here last year. Also among the top contenders is fellow Kenyan Joyciline Jepkosgei, a TCS London and TCS New York City Marathon Champion who was fourth in the 2023 Chicago Marathon.

The second and third fastest American women of all time will join the three East African stars on the start line. Former American marathon record holder Keira D’Amato, who has been part of the broadcast team for the past two years, will return to the start line this year. Betsy Saina, who placed fifth in this year’s Tokyo Marathon, will look to record her first Chicago finish after dropping out of the race in 2019 due to illness.

“I have a special history with the Chicago Marathon,” said D’Amato who finished fourth here in 2021….