UTMB 2026 Withdrawals: Jornet and Evans Out, Walmsley Off the Start List

Eight days before the start, UTMB has lost two of the three biggest names in its men's field, and the third has gone missing from the entrant list. Kilian Jornet, a four time winner, announced on August 20 that a knee injury needs surgery and he will not start. Tom Evans, the defending champion, announced on August 13 that he will not defend his title, without giving a reason. And Jim Walmsley, the course record holder, who came into race week with the highest UTMB Index of any man entered, no longer appears on UTMB's official top-ranked runners list for UTMB, or for OCC or CCC. Nobody has said why.

Is Kilian Jornet running UTMB 2026?

No. Jornet announced his withdrawal on Instagram on Thursday, August 20. "Sometimes plans change, and this year I won't be running UTMB," the post begins, and he wrote that after several months dealing with a knee injury, he and his medical team have decided surgery is "the best next step," as reported by Canadian Running and franceinfo. The knee has shadowed his whole season. It surfaced before Zegama in May, where he faded to 43rd after running near the front, forced him out of Western States in June, and kept him from Sierre-Zinal in August. He had been training for Chamonix in the hope it would hold. It did not. Jornet has won UTMB four times, in 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2022, a record he shares with François D'Haene. A fifth win would have made the record his alone.

Is Tom Evans running UTMB 2026?

No. Evans announced on Instagram on August 13 that he will not be back to defend the title he won in 2025, when he pulled away from Ben Dhiman in the second half to win by 33 minutes. "UTMB is one of those races that will always be incredibly special to me," he wrote, but he gave no reason and disclosed no injury. His name was absent from the elite start list UTMB released the same day. What is known is that Evans started the Hardrock 100 on July 10 as a favorite and dropped 58 miles in, and that UTMB comes only seven weeks after. Per Marathon Handbook, no man has won consecutive editions since Jornet in 2008 and 2009, and that streak now survives another year.

Is Jim Walmsley running UTMB 2026?

This is the open question, and right now the honest answer is that nobody outside his camp knows. Walmsley was on the elite start list UTMB released on August 13, with a UTMB Index of 967, the highest of any man in the race, and iRunFar's men's preview, published August 17, still had him signed up. As of the evening of August 20, Chamonix time, his name appears nowhere on UTMB's official top-ranked runners page, which covers every race of the week. He is not listed for UTMB. He is not listed for OCC. He is not listed for CCC.

As of the evening of August 20, there is no public confirmation that Walmsley has withdrawn, and no public confirmation that he has switched to OCC or CCC. Walmsley has not posted since announcing his Western States return in May, and neither HOKA nor UTMB has said anything. A name coming off an entrant list is not the same thing as a withdrawal, and UTMB's pages move slower than the news in both directions. The same official list still carried Jornet's name on Thursday evening, hours after his own announcement.

There is a precedent, and it is exact. In August 2025, days before the race, Walmsley came off the UTMB start list and reappeared on the OCC lineup without a word of explanation. He then won OCC in 5:00:35, and won the Trail World Championships long trail a month later. This year the shorter races would be a natural landing spot again. Walmsley dropped out of Western States on June 26 with a knee injury and has not raced since. But last year his name moved to the OCC list when it left the UTMB list. This year, so far, it has simply vanished.

What the men's race looks like without them

The 2026 men's field was, by the numbers, one of the deepest ever assembled, and it is still formidable. Ben Dhiman, second to Evans last year, is now the favorite. Vincent Bouillard won this race in 2024 and set the Western States course record in June, and only Jornet has ever won both in the same summer. Josh Wade was third last year. Baptiste Chassagne was second in 2024 and won the Diagonale des Fous in 2025. Hannes Namberger won Lavaredo this year for the fourth time, Jonathan Albon has won both OCC and CCC, and Caleb Olson, Chris Myers, Zach Miller, and Rod Farvard give the American contingent depth even if Walmsley never toes a line all week. The race starts in Chamonix at 5:45 p.m. on Friday, August 28.

What we know as of August 20

Kilian Jornet is confirmed out, by his own announcement, for knee surgery. Tom Evans is confirmed out, by his own announcement, reason unstated. Jim Walmsley is no longer on the entrant list for UTMB and is not listed for OCC, CCC, or any other race of the week, and there is no confirmation of a withdrawal, a switch, or anything else. This page will be updated as the lists change or as any of the three says more.