UTMB: Ultra-trail continues its feminization in small steps

We'll see them on the front line and among the elite athletes taking the lead on Friday, August 29, in the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB). But as the 2,300 runners of this great mass of world trail running begin to take place, women will be less visible. Because they will be less present, above all. According to the organizers, they represent 15% of the trail runners entered in this edition of the Tour du Mont Blanc, which covers 174 kilometers and around 10,000 meters of elevation gain, compared to 10% in 2022.

"In our shorter formats, we get up to 45% women, but in longer races, looking at the starting lines, it's no longer representative of the population at all, so it's a real challenge," observes Marie Sammons, in charge of elite athlete management within UTMB Group and initiatives for the feminization of trail running. She has notably worked to establish strict parity in the "elite" line, for the sake of representativeness. "Until recently, when a woman looked at a starting line, she only saw men, so it was easy to say to herself, 'I don't belong there.'" On Friday, Courtney Dauwalter, triple winner in Chamonix, will be alongside François D'Haene and his four crowns. Among others.

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