Galen Rupp, U.S. Olympic marathoners headline elite Boston Marathon field
The 2017 Boston Marathon U.S. elite field for the 26.2 mile race on April 17 will feature five of the six American marathoners from the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Galen Rupp, who won a bronze medal in the men's marathon, will make his Boston Marathon debut. Rupp won his debut marathon at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials last February and then finished third in Rio to become the first U.S. men's marathon medalist since Meb Keflezighi in 2004.
Keflezighi is coming off a 33rd place finish in Rio at 41 years old. Keflezighi won the 2014 Boston Marathon, just one year after the bombings that killed three people and injured more than 120 others. Keflezighi has previously announced 2017 as his final competitive season and will retire at the 2017 New York City Marathon, which will be his 26th career marathon.
Fellow Olympian Jared Ward, who took sixth in Rio for the men, will be running his first Boston Marathon.
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The women's elite field is headlined by Shalane Flanagan and Desiree Linden, who took sixth and seventh at Rio, respectively. Flanagan is a native of Marblehead, Mass. and returns to Boston for the fourth time in five years. Flanagan has said that winning Boston is one of the final items on her running bucket list. No American woman has won the race since Lisa Larsen Weidenbach in 1985.
Some of the elite field of international runners had been previously announced and includes 2016 Boston winners Atsede Baysa and Lemi Berhanu Hayle of Ethiopia.
– Chris Chavez
