Manuela Schär reached the finish in Sydney before anyone else and closed a circle no athlete had closed before. Her time of 1:42:04 won the women's wheelchair race at the 2026 TCS Sydney Marathon. It also made her the first person to win on all eight Abbott World Marathon Majors courses.
A course record on the way to the final major
The wheelchair racers were the first to cross the line that Sunday morning. Schär led them home and broke the course record in the process, taking 2:48 off Susannah Scaroni's previous mark of 1:44:52.
The win was not close. Schär finished 5:13 clear of Britain's Eden Rainbow-Cooper, who clocked 1:47:17. Tatyana McFadden of the United States took third in 1:51:08.
Sydney was, in her own team's words, the final piece of the puzzle. She had arrived in Australia with seven majors already won and one course left to conquer.
Eight cities, one athlete: Tokyo to Sydney
Schär had long held the six original majors: Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York City. She completed that sweep in a single series in 2019, another first. Earlier in 2026 she added the inaugural Cape Town Marathon, leaving only Sydney.
The Swiss racer came to Australia as a ten-time Paralympic medallist and world record holder. She has used a wheelchair since the age of eight, after a playground accident, and won her first majors series title in 2017.
The picture is now complete. From Tokyo to Sydney, every major belongs to Manuela Schär.
