The world’s most grueling mountain ultramarathon just crowned its 2026 champions — and the shoes they crossed the finish line in might surprise you.
At this year’s UTMB in Chamonix, six runners stood on the podium wearing footwear from five different brands, and unlike the prototype-heavy drama of 2025, almost every shoe was already sitting on store shelves when the gun went off.
From a budget-friendly Decathlon brand making its supershoe debut to a plateless Canadian newcomer that’s quietly rewriting what trail running footwear can be, this year’s podium tells a fascinating story about where the sport is headed.
Here’s a full breakdown of every shoe that made it to the top at UTMB 2026 — and what makes each one worth knowing about.
Jump to:
- Ben Dhiman Breaks 19 Hours in the Asics Metafuji Trail 2
- Blandine L’Hirondel Wins the Women’s Race in a $250 Shoe Nobody Saw Coming
- Baptiste Chassagne Goes Silver in the On Cloudultra Pro
- Rachel Entrekin’s Plateless Podium Debut With the Norda 055
- Caleb Olson Charges to Third on the Nike ACG Ultrafly Trail
- The One Mystery: Emily Schmitz’s Unreleased Hoka
Ben Dhiman Breaks 19 Hours in the Asics Metafuji Trail 2
The men’s race produced a historic moment. Ben Dhiman won in 18:16:29, becoming the first man ever to finish the UTMB course in under 19 hours.
He did it in the retail version of the Asics Metafuji Trail 2 — the same shoe he raced as a prototype when he finished second at UTMB in 2025. Asics dropped the shoe globally on August 1, just four weeks before race day.
The Metafuji Trail 2 features an X-shaped carbon plate sandwiched between two foam layers: FF Leap on top, which Asics calls its bounciest compound, and FF Blast Plus beneath. Lug depth was trimmed from 4.5 mm down to 3.5 mm compared to the original model.
Stack: 41.5 mm heel / 36.5 mm forefoot | Drop: 5 mm | Weight: 255 g | Price: $280
Blandine L’Hirondel Wins the Women’s Race in a $250 Shoe Nobody Saw Coming
This is the story of the weekend. Blandine L’Hirondel took the women’s title in 21:54:49 wearing the Kiprun Kipsummit Race — the cheapest shoe on the entire podium and the first carbon-plated supershoe ever made by Kiprun, Decathlon’s running label.
Priced at just $250 in the US, where Kiprun only launched in April, the shoe features a supercritical aliphatic TPU midsole and a carbon plate reviewers describe as forked at the forefoot with a rounded heel cutout.
What makes L’Hirondel’s win even more remarkable is the personal milestone it represented. Back in May, she told a Kiprun press camp that UTMB 2026 would mark the first time she had ever raced a carbon-plated shoe over an ultra distance.
UTMB 2026 would be the first time she had raced a carbon-plated shoe over an ultra distance.
She also ran the entire course in a single pair — a change of approach after losing time at aid stations in previous races swapping shoes and socks.
Stack: 37.5 mm heel / 31.5 mm forefoot | Drop: 6 mm | Weight: 221 g (women’s) | Price: $250
Baptiste Chassagne Goes Silver in the On Cloudultra Pro
Baptiste Chassagne crossed in 18:47:38 for second place in the men’s race, wearing one of the oldest shoes on the podium.
On launched the Cloudultra Pro back in June 2025 and hasn’t replaced it at the top of its trail lineup. Interestingly, it’s also one of only two podium shoes containing no carbon — On’s Speedboard plate is made from either glass-reinforced nylon or TPU, depending on which reviewer you ask.
The plate runs from the ball of the foot to just short of the heel, delivering propulsion without the stiffness of a full carbon setup.
Stack: 38.5 mm heel / 32.5 mm forefoot | Drop: 6 mm | Weight: 267 g (men’s) | Price: $260
Rachel Entrekin’s Plateless Podium Debut With the Norda 055
Rachel Entrekin made her UTMB debut count, finishing second in the women’s race in 22:15:54 in the most expensive shoe on the podium — and the only one with absolutely no plate of any kind.
The Norda 055, from the Montreal-founded brand, launched on July 9 — seven weeks before race day. Its midsole is Arnitel thermoplastic elastomer, and the upper is constructed from woven bio-based Dyneema. One important caveat: Norda’s own stack measurements and those from independent testers don’t always line up, so comparisons with other shoes should be taken with some context.
Entrekin had already set the Cocodona 250 course record in a pre-release pair back in May, so her confidence in the shoe heading into Chamonix was well-earned.
Stack: 36 mm heel / 30 mm forefoot (per Norda; testers measure 38–39 mm) | Drop: 6 mm | Weight: 260 g (women’s) | Price: $325
Caleb Olson Charges to Third on the Nike ACG Ultrafly Trail
Caleb Olson finished third in the men’s race at 18:48:24, just 46 seconds behind Chassagne — and he made up over five minutes on the final descent from La Flegere alone.
His shoe, the Nike ACG Ultrafly Trail, carries the lowest stack height and the largest heel-to-toe drop of anything on the podium. At 8.5 mm drop, it’s a notably different ride compared to the 5–6 mm options elsewhere in the field.
Nike first announced the shoe in August 2025 and put it on sale in early 2026. Olson had already won the 2025 Western States in a prototype version, so this was familiar ground. The split-spine carbon FlyPlate is designed to be less rigid than the plate in the original Ultrafly.
Stack: 37 mm heel / 28.5 mm forefoot | Drop: 8.5 mm | Weight: 287 g (men’s) | Price: $260
The One Mystery: Emily Schmitz’s Unreleased Hoka
Emily Schmitz rounded out the women’s podium in third place with a time of 22:17:28 — and she did it racing in the 45–49 age category, climbing from 147th place at Col de Voza all the way to 33rd overall.
Her shoe is the one podium exception this year: an unreleased Hoka prototype that the brand has stayed completely silent about. No announcement, no specs, no comment on the race.
Hoka’s current flagship trail racer, the Tecton X 4, went on sale just eight days before the start at $275, featuring dual carbon plates and a PEBA midsole. Whether Schmitz’s mystery shoe is related to that model is anyone’s guess.
It wouldn’t be the first time Hoka has kept things quiet at UTMB. Vincent Bouillard won the entire 2024 race in a prototype that was only later identified as a version of the Rocket X Trail — and Ludovic Pommeret took two Hardrock victories on a custom midsole from the same shoe.
Nike also had its own intrigue going into race week, showing select media an unreleased shoe called the ACG Picklejus in Chamonix — though none of its athletes wore it on the podium. Nike has indicated the shoe will be formally explained in early 2027.
