If we needed to sum up 2025 in operating phrases, it was a marathon. It was an extended yr stuffed with unforgettable moments, a couple of we had been completely happy to go away behind and loads of twists alongside the way in which. That blend is mirrored in our most-read operating tales of the yr, chosen by you.
From on-course blunders that made headlines to athletes younger and outdated chasing age-group world information, 2025 delivered no scarcity of triumphs and chaos. Right here’s a countdown of the ten hottest operating tales of 2025, as learn and shared by our viewers.
Atlanta’s Jacob Cohen has been operating day by day 5Ks in odd areas. No, not like round his neighbour’s yard–we’re speaking within the bathe, in a conveyable rest room, in an elevator and even in a espresso store. His final purpose? 100,000 Instagram followers, and to proceed to make individuals snicker.
Cohen began the problem to turn out to be a full-time operating influencer, creating comedic content material that tells a narrative and evokes others. He started the problem with 3,500 Instagram followers, and his purpose has been to succeed in 100,000 by the tip of 2025.
Many people depend on our operating watches day by day, utilizing them as a necessary coaching device to trace tempo, distance and coronary heart charge. New analysis steered that a few of these helpful units include an sudden draw back—excessive ranges of poisonous PFAs, also called “without end chemical substances.”
A research from the College of Notre Dame discovered that 15 out of twenty-two widespread smartwatch and health tracker bands examined contained PFAs at ranges considerably greater than these usually present in client merchandise.
Graham Tomori of St. Catharines, Ont., thought he’d simply run the race of his life. The 18-year-old crossed the road in 14:23.87 within the boys’ 5,000m occasion on the New Steadiness Nationals in Philadelphia. It was adequate for a silver medal in a deep area of North America’s finest high-school distance runners.
The celebration didn’t final. After the awards ceremony, Tomori was knowledgeable he’d been disqualified underneath USATF Rule 163.5, stepping alongside the within of the rail—a technical infraction that stripped him of each his medal and his ending time.
It looks like yearly, a teenage dash phenom makes headlines for operating a ridiculously quick 100m time. In 2025, it occurred to be China’s Yujie Chen. At China’s Nationwide Video games, Chen quietly produced the fourth-fastest U18 100m time in historical past and broke a file that had stood since 1997.
https://t.co/zIC8u4Jb4v pic.twitter.com/jWrG2Ids4D
— YSL (@contestedmid) November 17, 2025
Chen sprinted to a 100m time of 11.10 seconds (+0.7 m/s) to win nationwide gold, breaking the Chinese language and Asian U20 file of 11.17. Earlier this yr, she additionally turned the youngest feminine athlete to compete on the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, the place she ran the 200m heats and was a part of China’s girls’s 4x100m relay squad.
Biking and operating are equally cardio in nature, so it’s no shock that many elite cyclists transition into sturdy age‑group runners after retiring from the game. However not everybody makes the leap easily, one thing Tour de France legend Mark Cavendish realized the exhausting manner.
Cavendish posted a selfie on social media together with his medal from the Harmonie Mutuelle Semi de Paris, and a few followers had been lower than impressed. He lined the 21.1 km in 1:57:08, averaging 5:33 per kilometre (8:55 per mile). Whereas that’s a superbly respectable debut half‑marathon time for a lot of newbie runners, some followers took photographs on the 35‑time Tour de France stage winner for his perceived lack of health, given his background.
The nationwide ultimate on the 2025 Canadian Observe and Area Championships introduced all of the noise. With Andre De Grasse withdrawing attributable to harm and Jerome Blake disqualified for a false begin within the semi-finals, the door opened for Duan Asemota of Ajax, Ont., who delivered a breakthrough efficiency.
The Paris 2024 Olympian reminded the sector why he’s one of many nation’s most electrifying sprinters, profitable in 10.12 seconds. Asemota was the primary Canadian sprinter not named De Grasse or Aaron Brown to win the race in nearly a decade.
American dash phenom Quincy Wilson continued to make headlines in 2025, as soon as once more touchdown in our prime 10 tales of the yr. It’s not each day a highschool soccer participant outruns an Olympic monitor champion, so when it occurred on the Pepsi Florida Relays in April, it despatched shockwaves by the monitor group.
On the ultimate leg of the highschool boys’ 4x400m relay, Tywan Cox of Miami Northwestern, a defensive again and College of Illinois soccer commit, threw down a blistering 45.14 anchor cut up to chase down and defeat the American Olympic 4x400m gold medallist.
The query of simply how briskly the quickest girl on the planet is in comparison with the common man was put to the take a look at, with assist from world 100m champion Melissa Jefferson‑Wood and YouTuber MrBeast.
Mr. Beast made 100 random males RACE the world’s FASTEST Girl, Melissa Jefferson-Wood for $100K, and it was CLOSE 😮🏃♀️👀
pic.twitter.com/9G0NUA5QAd— Killa 🌺 (@KillaKreww) October 11, 2025
Jefferson‑Wood raced 100 male College of North Carolina college students and beat each considered one of them, reminding the Web why she’s the quickest girl on earth. MrBeast supplied a US$100,000 prize to any man who might outrun the reigning world 100m and 200m champion throughout the width of two soccer fields, however just one particular person got here shut.
We’ve all been misplaced or taken a mistaken activate a run, however hardly ever to the purpose the place it prices us the race. On the 2025 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, three Ethiopian elite marathoners weren’t paying consideration and mistakenly adopted the half‑marathoners to the end line across the 20‑kilometre mark, as a substitute of continuous alongside the marathon course.
Three Ethiopian runners took a mistaken flip on the @TOwaterfront42k and ended up on the end. 22km early…#RunTO pic.twitter.com/FsP5Tk9TaB
— Canadian Working (@CanadianRunning) October 19, 2025
They ended up operating by the end chute and into the medical zone, solely to be advised by race officers that they may not head again out onto the course. It’s a blunder they’re unlikely to make once more.
Going “balls out” isn’t meant to be taken actually, however American hurdler Chris Robinson did simply that on the 2025 Ostrava Golden Spike assembly within the Czech Republic. The sprinter suffered an enormous wardrobe malfunction whereas operating the 400m hurdles, leading to a very clear shot of his junk falling clear out of his cut up shorts. And regardless of reaching down to regulate himself as he got here down the ultimate stretch, Robinson nonetheless completed first, recording a season’s better of 48.05 seconds.
