He’d Never Run a Marathon. He Won New York.

Nobody is supposed to win New York the first time they ever race 26.2 miles. Andreas Almgren did it anyway.

The 31-year-old Swede won the TCS New York City Marathon on Sunday in 2:06:01, breaking the tape in Central Park in the first marathon of his life. According to NBC Sports, he is the first Swedish winner in the race’s history and the first man to win New York on his debut since Gebregziabher Gebremariam in 2010 — and he did not sneak it. Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa finished second in 2:06:14, Lesotho’s Kamohelo Mofolo third in 2:06:26, sprinting past defending champion Benson Kipruto (2:06:27) at the line on the morning of his 21st birthday. The whole podium fit inside 26 seconds; the winner’s share of history was worth $100,000.

The strangest part is how he won it: like a man who had been racing marathons for a decade. The lead pack refused to separate all morning — 15 men were still together at 35 kilometres — and Almgren reached halfway in a conservative 1:04:04. Then he ran the second half in 1:01:57, a negative split of more than two minutes, burning the 35-to-40K segment in 14:26 to arrive at 40K in exactly 2:00:00 with only Kipruto and Crippa still attached. Kipruto, the defending champion, cracked first. With roughly 800 metres left, Almgren kicked clear of Crippa and covered the final stretch in 6:01, fast enough to wave to the crowd on his way in. His 2:06:01 is the third-fastest time in course history, four seconds outside the Swedish national record.

If the debut sounds like a fluke, the résumé says otherwise. Almgren is a track man first: the 2025 World Championships bronze medalist at 10,000 metres, the reigning European 10,000m champion and European record holder at 5,000m — and, as of September, the world half-marathon champion, having won the title in Copenhagen in a European record 58:06. He picked New York for his debut, a race run without pacemakers, because of the crowd. On Sunday the crowd got a first: a European winner of the men’s race for the first time in three decades, per Reuters.

The women’s race was, if anything, tighter. Sheila Chepkirui won her second New York title in three years — she won in 2024 and was third last year — in 2:24:36, and the margin tells the story: American Jess McClain was second in 2:24:42 and defending champion Hellen Obiri third in 2:24:43, the top three separated by seven seconds after 26.2 miles. Chepkirui made the decisive move with the fastest 5K of the race, 16:24 between 35K and 40K, and only Obiri could follow. Over the final two kilometres Chepkirui pulled clear to cross alone, as Reuters reported — while behind her, McClain, who had trailed Obiri by 3.4 seconds at 40K, sprinted past the course-record holder in the final 200 metres to take second by 0.41 of a second. She is the first American woman on the New York podium since Shalane Flanagan in 2018.

The depth behind the podiums was its own story. Zouhair Talbi’s 2:06:43 in sixth place is the fastest marathon ever run by an American in this race, and Ahmed Muhumed — another debutant — finished seventh in 2:07:08, two American men inside a top 10 that rewrote the course’s all-time list: the first seven finishers all landed among the ten fastest times in New York history. On the women’s side, 46-year-old Edna Kiplagat, the 2010 champion, finished fourth in 2:25:42, and Chepkirui’s win extended the Kenyan women’s hold on this race to eight straight editions. The morning itself cooperated — sunny, dry and in the mid-40s at the start on Staten Island, the kind of day records quietly expect.

All of it unfolded on an anniversary the race had been waiting half a century for: Sunday was the 50th running of the five-borough course, first raced in 1976, and about 60,000 runners — the most in the event’s history, from more than 140 countries — took the start, with the Bronx stretch rerouted for the first course change in more than 15 years. In the wheelchair races, Marcel Hug won his eighth New York title in 1:28:14, a single second ahead of Daniel Romanchuk — the closest wheelchair finish in the event’s history — while Catherine Debrunner won the women’s race in 1:40:02, the second-fastest time the event has seen, and Susannah Scaroni took third three months after giving birth. A record crowd came to celebrate the course’s first 50 years. It got two finishes for the next 50.