Eden Rainbow-Cooper wins 2026 Boston Marathon women’s wheelchair race

Rainbow-Cooper, 24, claimed her second Boston Marathon victory Monday.

Eden Rainbow-Cooper summits Heartbreak Hill. Finn Gomez for The Boston Globe

April 20, 2026 | 11:20 AM

1 minute to read

Eden Rainbow-Cooper won the women’s wheelchair division of the 2026 Boston Marathon Monday, cruising to her second Boston victory in 1:30:51.

The 24-year-old from Portsmouth, England, opened a decisive lead early in the race and maintained her dominant position throughout the course’s punishing hills. She had more than two minutes on the second-place finisher, Catherine Debrunner, but fell short of the 1:28:17 course record set by Manuela Schär — this year’s fourth-place finisher — in 2017.

With her landmark Boston victory in 2024, Rainbow-Cooper became the first woman from Great Britain to win the division. She placed fourth in last year’s race following a training season dogged by a persistent back injury.

Last year’s champion, Susannah Scaroni, withdrew from the race to focus on her pregnancy. However, she was on hand Monday morning to fire the starting gun for the women’s wheelchair division.

Eden Rainbow-Cooper poses with her trophy. *Danielle Parhizkaran / The Boston Globe*

Born with sacral agenesis, which impacts the development of the lower spine, Rainbow-Cooper managed to shave more than four minutes off her 2024 personal best of 1:35:11.

Boston “feels like home,” she told WCVB following the race. “Every time I come here, there’s a little piece of me that stays here.”

Interviewed alongside men’s wheelchair champion Marcel Hug — who secured his ninth Boston Marathon win Monday — she chuckled when asked if she plans to attempt a similar number of Boston wins.

“I’ll give it a go, but no promises,” Rainbow-Cooper said.

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.

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