Masters Women at UTMB 2026: Schmitz Storms the Back Half to Take the Crown

• Emily Schmitz, 45, wins in 22:20:40 — climbing from 14th to 3rd among all women by the final checkpoint, with the fastest Masters Women's split on the Champex-Lac sortie→La Giète segment to seal it.
• Anne Cécile Thévenot closes fastest: the 2nd-place finisher (24:05:12) posted the fastest women's split on Grand Col Ferret→La Fouly, rocketing from 30th to 9th among women in the final stretch.
• Anne-Sofie Pollestad's relentless climb: 3rd in 24:08:08, she moved from 66th to 9th among women — the biggest positional surge in the top ten — running the 3rd-fastest women's split on Col de la Seigne→Lac Combal along the way.
• A field of 142 finishers completed 174 km and over 9,700 m of gain through France, Italy, and Switzerland, all within the 45h 30min limit.

Emily Schmitz didn't lead early — she didn't need to. Sitting 14th among women through the opening checkpoints, the 45-year-old ran a measured, disciplined race before unleashing something special in the back half. By the time the field hit Champex-Lac sortie, she was posting the fastest women's split on the run to La Giète, and her gender place told the whole story: 14th to 9th to 7th to 4th to 3rd, holding that podium position all the way to Chamonix. Her 22:20:40 finish — averaging 12:24 per mile across a course that climbs to nearly 8,300 feet — lands just outside the women's course record of 22:09:31, a remarkable benchmark for a Masters performance.

Behind her, the final podium spots were decided by two of the race's most dramatic late charges. Anne Cécile Thévenot, 40, was running in 30th place among women as late as the Grand Col Ferret checkpoint, seemingly out of contention. Then she ran the fastest women's split on the descent to La Fouly and simply didn't stop — surging all the way to 9th among women and 2nd in the Masters field in 24:05:12. Anne-Sofie Pollestad, 41, was even further back at the start, sitting 66th among women after the first segment. A 3rd-fastest women's split on Col de la Seigne→Lac Combal ignited her charge, and she tracked Thévenot's trajectory almost exactly, finishing 3rd in 24:08:08 — just 2 minutes and 56 seconds back.

Céline Finas, 41, held 4th in 25:37:08 with a steady, controlled progression through the women's field, while Kristi Knecht, 43, delivered one of the more intriguing mid-race stories: after sliding from 22nd to 64th among women by the second checkpoint, she reversed course entirely, running the 8th-fastest women's split on Champex-Lac sortie→La Giète to claw back to 20th among women and 5th in the Masters field at 26:18:42. Ingrid M Due-Gundersen (6th, 26:47:54), Katie Asmuth (7th, 26:53:11), and Julie Lesage (8th, 26:57:44) rounded out a tightly packed mid-field. At 52, Corine Kagerer finished 13th in 29:43:53, and Ann Andries — 54 years old — crossed in 31:42:18 for 20th, a reminder that the Masters Women's field at UTMB is as deep as it is relentless.