Who is Andreas Almgren? The Swedish 800m runner who won the NYC Marathon on debut

Twelve years before he won the New York City Marathon, Andreas Almgren was an 800-metre runner. In 2014 he took bronze at the World U20 Championships in Eugene in 1:45.65, a Swedish junior record, and a year later he ran 1:45.59, a time that would still make him one of the fastest two-lap runners in Europe. Middle-distance runners do not usually become marathoners. Almgren did it in stages, over a decade, through a run of injuries that would have ended most careers, and on November 1, 2026 he won one of the hardest marathons in the world at his first attempt, in 2:06:01.

This page is about the runner. For the race itself — every kilometre of the course from his own watch, the official checkpoints and the negative split — see Andreas Almgren's NYC Marathon splits.

The basics

• Born: June 12, 1995, in Stockholm, Sweden. He was 31 when he won New York.
• Height: 1.77 m.
• Coach: Urban Aruhn, who has coached him since 2012. Almgren plans most of his own training and runs it past Aruhn.
• Outside running: He works as a data scientist for the sports-technology company Svexa, and has been described by sponsors as one of the most data-driven athletes in the sport.
• Before running: He played soccer as a winger for AIK in Stockholm until he was 18, when repeated injuries pushed him towards athletics full-time.

Personal bests and records

Almgren's range is unusual even by the standards of modern distance running. He holds Swedish records at every distance from 3,000m to the half marathon, and European records at three of them.

The 5,000m record is the one that marks him out. 12:44.27, run in front of a home crowd at the Stockholm Diamond League in June 2025, is a time that only a handful of East African athletes have ever beaten. The 10K road record of 26:45, set in Valencia in January 2026, made him the first European under 27 minutes on the road; he matched it a month later in Castellón.

Championship record

The 2026 season is the one that turned him from a very good European distance runner into a global one: a European 10,000m title in August, the world half marathon title in September, and a World Marathon Major win in November, all within twelve weeks.

The injuries

The gap between the 2015 800m runner and the 2022 5,000m runner is mostly a list of broken bones. His late teens and early twenties brought a series of stress fractures, a broken navicular in his foot, and a sacral stress fracture in 2019. He qualified for the Paris Olympics over 5,000m in 2024 and then withdrew with a stress reaction in his shin. For a runner whose whole model depends on volume — he averages around 200 km a week — the injuries were not interruptions to the plan, they were the main obstacle to having one.

The move up in distance was partly a response to that. Longer, slower, more aerobic training is gentler on bone than 800m work, and the data-driven approach to load he brought from his day job was a way of staying healthy long enough to find out how good he could be.

How he trains

Almgren is open about his training, which is unusual at his level, and the picture is consistent:

• Volume: around 200 km per week in normal training. In the ten weeks before New York he logged more than 2,000 km.
• Method: the Norwegian double-threshold approach, with two threshold sessions in one day on Tuesdays and Thursdays, controlled by lactate measurement rather than feel. For what threshold training is and why it works, see our heart rate training guide.
• The marathon build: after winning the world half title in Copenhagen on September 20, 2026, he went to Flagstaff, Arizona, for an altitude camp. Long runs went up to 40 km, with some days reaching 46 km across two sessions.
• Fuelling: he trained his gut to take on about 120 grams of carbohydrate per hour on long runs, roughly the upper limit of what current sports-science practice considers usable. See running nutrition basics for the principles at recreational doses.

The combination of a decade of track speed with marathon-specific volume is what showed up in Central Park: he covered the last 7.195 km at 2:50 per kilometre and closed with a 2:42 kilometre after two hours of racing.

Why New York

Almgren could have debuted in Valencia or Berlin, chased a fast time on a flat course with pacemakers, and almost certainly taken the Swedish record. He chose New York instead, and explained it clearly before the race: the course has no pacemakers and a hilly closing stretch, which suits a runner whose strength is racing rather than time-trialling. He also said he loved the crowds. His stated plan was to stay with the leaders and sprint for the win rather than go for a time, and that is exactly what happened.

It worked, but it was a gamble. The last man to win New York on his marathon debut was Gebre Gebremariam in 2010, and no European-born man had won the race since Giacomo Leone in 1996.

What comes next

Almgren has been consistent that the marathon is not yet his main event. His stated priority is the 10,000m at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics — he has put it at around 95% of his focus — with the marathon the plan for after Los Angeles. He has not ruled out running the Olympic marathon instead.

What New York changes is the leverage. A 2:06:01 on a hilly, unpaced course converts to something well under 2:05 on a flat one, and the Swedish record of 2:05:57 is four seconds away. The question for 2027 is whether he spends a spring chasing that on a fast course or goes back to the track. Either way, the man who ran 1:45 for 800m is now, on the evidence of one race, one of the best championship-style marathoners in the world.

Frequently asked questions

How old is Andreas Almgren?

He was born on June 12, 1995, so he was 31 when he won the 2026 New York City Marathon.

Has Andreas Almgren run a marathon before New York?

No. New York on November 1, 2026 was his first marathon, in a race or in training.

What records does Andreas Almgren hold?

The European 5,000m record (12:44.27) and the European half marathon record (58:06, pending ratification), plus Swedish records at 3,000m, 10,000m, 10K road and the half marathon. His 10K road time of 26:45 was a European record until Yann Schrub ran 26:43.

Is Andreas Almgren the Swedish marathon record holder?

No. Suldan Hassan holds the Swedish record at 2:05:57 from Tokyo 2025. Almgren's 2:06:01 is four seconds slower.

Who coaches Andreas Almgren?

Urban Aruhn, who has worked with him since 2012. Almgren designs most of his own training.

Further reading

• Andreas Almgren's NYC Marathon splits — the kilometre-by-kilometre breakdown of the race.
• NYC Marathon 2026 results — full top 10s for the men's and women's races.
• Who is Sabastian Sawe? — the other runner who defined the 2026 marathon year.
• Inside elite marathon training — the volume, thresholds and altitude work behind the fastest marathoners.
• Half marathon world record — where Almgren's 58:06 sits against Kejelcha's 56:51.