Who to Watch: Women’s 800m 2026 Season Preview

Jarmila Kratochvílova’s contentious 800-meter record of 1:53.28 has stood since 1983 and has gone relatively unchallenged since then. Only Pamela Jelimo in 2008 and Caster Semenya in 2018 have come within a second of this mark, and Semenya’s run came with its own controversy.

Four of the eleven fastest times in history have come within the past four years. With all four runners still active, it seems like we could start to see some legitimate threats to the record, or at least some deep fields with the potential for multiple runners to post times inside the all-time top ten.   

Let’s take a look at some of the women who will likely be leading the charge in 2026 and beyond.

Keely Hodgkinson

Keely Hodgkinson is the defending Olympic Champion and the bronze medalist from the 2025 World Championship in Tokyo. Before her hamstring injury in February that kept her from racing for more than a year, many predicted her to capture her first World Championship gold.

Hodgkinson didn’t open until mid-August, but upon her return, she ran 0.13 seconds off her personal best of 1:54.61 and posted a world lead that would stand until Lilian Odira ran 1:54.62 in Tokyo.

One of Hodgkinson’s top priorities for next season will likely be the staying healthy and banking more consistent training. In a year where there’s no Olympics or World Championship, her team may be looking ahead at the next Olympic cycle as a whole rather than emptying the tank in 2026. It’s yet to be seen how much focus athletes will give to the World Athletics Ultimate Championships slated to fill the gap this season.

With Hodgkinson’s track record over the past five seasons, she’ll inevitably be near the top of the world rankings again as long as she stays healthy.  

Georgia Hunter Brown

Georgia Hunter Brown currently sits at the top of the world rankings, and she capped her 2025 season with a silver medal at the World Championships. She dropped almost a second and a half from her personal best set in 2024, running 1:54.90. It’s a remarkable comeback after a 7-year absence in the event dating back to 2017.

She may be nearly 10 years older than her training partner, Hodgkinson, but she could be building for a special season if she sticks with the event. She’s coming off medals in her past two major world championships in the 800-meter, but she has expressed that she might move up to the 1500-meter if Faith Kipyegon moves up to the 5,000-meter and above.

Audrey Werro

In contrast to Hunter Brown, who may move up, Audrey Werro is somebody who frequently moves down to the 400-meter. She ran a personal best of 51.03 seconds in the event in 2025, as well as a national Swiss record of 1:55.91 in the 800-meter.

Werro is still only 21 years old and won the Diamond League final this past season. The world number three and recent winner of European Athletics’ Women’s Rising Star Awards has given us every reason to think that the best is ahead of her.  

Lilian Odira

Lilian Odira is the defending world champion in the 800-meter, earning the title after running 1:54.62 and stunning the field with a late kick. Her time currently puts her seventh on the all-time list.  

Odira took a maternity break from 2020–2023, so she doesn’t have as many miles behind her as most other runners her age. It will be interesting to see if the 26-year-old mother of two continues to improve after a season where she cut 4 seconds off her personal best or if she’ll take a step back.

Femke Bol

Femke Bol has announced that she’ll be turning her attention to the 800-meter in 2025. It’s hard to know how she’ll fare in her first season in the event, or whether she’ll eventually turn her attention back to the 400-meter hurdles, but her switch remains an interesting storyline.

Her personal best is still technically 2:19.51 from way back in 2017, ran when she was 16 on a short track.

Given that she has run under 50 seconds for the 400-meter flat, she may run around the 2-minute barrier. It seems unlikely that she’ll reach the same prestige that she has in the 400-meter and 400-meter hurdles in the 800-meter, at least right away, but that’s a tall order with 11 World Championships and Olympic medals already behind her.

Sarah Moraa

Moraa is the number seven-ranked runner in the world right now and will be heading into her age-20 season. The defending World U20 Champion has already run 1:55.74 and finished fourth at the World Championships this past season. Her cousin Mary Moraa is the world 800-meter champion from 2023 and the Olympic bronze medalist from 2024.

Given her age and her family history, it seems likely that Sarah Moraa will continue to run faster over the next several seasons. Her cousin has run her fastest time (so far) at the age of 23, if that’s any indication.

Addison Wiley

Addison Wiley is coming off a season where she ran 1:57.43 and is currently the 15th-ranked runner in the world. She moved into the top spot in the American rankings in May and briefly held a spot inside the top 10 in the World rankings for the first time. The 22-year-old finished second at the Monaco Diamond League and London events and finished 8^th at the Diamond League Final.

As Wiley continues to gather professional racing experience, she’ll surely hone her race strategy and should continue to be in the mix at world events.  

Claudia Hollingsworth

The 20-year-old Australian ran 1:57.67 last season. She’s three years removed from becoming the Oceanic Champion in the 1,500-meter at the age of 17. She came close to winning her first global championship in 2024 with a silver medal performance in the World U20 Championships in the 800-meter.

While the 800-meter has become her primary event, it’s yet to be seen if she’ll stick with it or move back to the 1,500-meter, where she had her earliest success.

Phoebe Gill

Phoebe Gill became the British Champion in the 800-meter in 2024 as a 17-year-old, also running a season best of 1:57.87. Despite her promise, a fibula stress fracture caused her to miss the entire 2025 outdoor season. She joined the University of Edinburgh in 2025 and is training with Mark Rowland’s Global Endurance Project.

As she heads into her age-19 season, she’ll look to make a splash at both the senior and U20 level. We’ll have to wait and see how much her lost training time and injury will affect her this year, but it seems likely that she’ll continue to develop as long as injuries don’t become a chronic problem.

Rin Kibu

Japan’s Rin Kubo ran 1:59.52 last season to break the Japanese record in the event despite still only being 17. Kibu was born in 2008 and won’t turn 18 until January. She got a taste of her first World Championships this year, running 2:02.84 in the heats.

It can be difficult to predict the developmental curve of youth and junior athletes, but it seems likely that Kubo will at least be in the mix in the semi-finals or finals of major world championships in the future.