Organisers of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon published a revised elite field on Tuesday, 19 days before the race on 11 October. They added 16 athletes and lost six. The most notable addition is Bashir Abdi, the Belgian whose 2:03:36 in Rotterdam in October 2021 is still the European record. The most notable withdrawal is Kenya's Alex Masai, who finished third in Chicago last October.
Abdi is 37, and few men in the field can match his championship record: bronze in the Olympic marathon in Tokyo and silver in Paris. Norway's Sondre Moen is also on the updated start list, which gives Chicago two men who have held the European record. Eight of the 16 additions are American, which deepens the domestic racing behind the leaders a year after Conner Mantz set a North American record on the same course.
Masai is not the only withdrawal. Americans Zach Panning, Jacob Thomson and Felicia Pasadyn, South Africa's Tiaan Bosch and Spain's Rafael Botello Jimenez have also left the field. Losing Masai removes one of last year's podium from the men's race. The front of it is still built around Jacob Kiplimo, who won last year in 2:02:23, the second-fastest time run in Chicago, and who ran 2:00:28 in London in April. Amos Kipruto, runner-up in 2025, remains entered.
The top of the women's race is unchanged. Defending champion Hawi Feysa returns, and two-time winner Brigid Kosgei races the course for the first time since her 2019 victory, having won in Tokyo this year in 2:14:29. Sharon Lokedi, the two-time Boston champion, makes her Chicago debut. Kosgei and Feysa are the only two women in the field with personal bests under 2:15, but Lokedi's form this spring makes the podium hard to call. Canada sends Ben Flanagan, Thomas Fafard and Thomas Nobbs in the men's race.
Behind the elite start, organisers expect more than 55,000 finishers, a record for Chicago, from more than 200,000 applications. Abdi does not change the favourite, but he adds a proven championship racer to a group whose pacing will decide whether Kiplimo goes after the course record. If the lead group splits early, a 2:03 runner with Abdi's tactical experience is well placed to pick up the pieces. With Berlin on Sunday, Chicago is the next major marathon on the autumn calendar.