Scotland’s Eilish McColgan has used a series of pointed Instagram posts in the last 48 hours to push back at a fresh wave of body-shaming directed at her after the 2026 TCS London Marathon. McColgan finished seventh in 2:24:51 on April 26 in conditions she described as the most painful of her career, with a blister on the ball of her right foot bursting around halfway and bloodying her shoe through the closing miles. Photographs of her finish circulated widely on social platforms, drawing both admiration and a steady drip of unsolicited commentary on her body, with some accounts calling her physique “unhealthy” and questioning whether she should have started the race at all.
The 35-year-old, daughter of 1991 world marathon champion Liz McColgan, did not let the criticism sit. “I am the strongest I have ever been,” she wrote in one post, attaching a photograph of her London medal. She accused the small group of repeat offenders of “moronic” behaviour, pointed out that elite distance runners come in a wide variety of physiques, and asked her followers to consider what kind of message such commentary sends to younger athletes who already navigate one of the most image-policed cultures in sport.
The criticism is part of a larger pattern. McColgan, the British 10,000m and half-marathon record holder, has previously described how the abuse she receives spikes whenever a major race photograph circulates, and she has said she sees the same dynamic play out around teammates such as Charlotte Purdue and continental rivals like Sifan Hassan. London was her second marathon and a bumpy step up from her 2:24:13 debut at the same race in 2023; she has been candid that the build-up was disrupted by a stress reaction and that she went into the start line undercooked, which made the foot trauma in the late miles harder to absorb.
McColgan’s focus now is on Glasgow 2026, the World Indoor Championships and the European Championships on home roads, where she has said she will return to the track and 10,000m. Her management have not signalled when she will run another marathon, but she has been clear that she has not been put off the distance, and that the target remains the LA 2028 Olympic marathon. The blister, she said in a follow-up video, was the kind of one-off equipment problem that any runner can suffer; the body-shaming, by contrast, is something she would like to see the sport stop pretending is part of the deal.
Britain’s elite distance community closed ranks around her over the bank holiday weekend. Charlotte Purdue, Mahamed Mahamed and Andy Butchart all posted in support, as did several London Marathon broadcasters, and UK Athletics issued a short statement reminding fans that any abuse directed at athletes through verified channels would be reported and where applicable referred to platforms for action. McColgan’s preferred response, though, was characteristically direct: a photograph of her training again on Tuesday, foot taped, mileage logged, no apology offered.