Jim Walmsley & Katie Schide | #1 Trail Runner of the Year

2026-01-10

Download

Today we welcome the #1 Trail Runners of the Year, Jim Walmsley and Katie Schide, both Americans who currently reside in France. This is the second time each has won our prestigious award and they've both been featured all four years of TROY's existence. Jim's season was anything but straight forward. He started with a big win at Chianti by UTMB in the spring before an injury prevented him from defending his win at the Western States 100. Luckily, he bounced back in a big way, winning OCC in August and then the Long Trail World Championship in September - the second individual gold medal of his career.

Jim's season was anything but straight forward. He started with a big win at Chianti by UTMB in the spring before an injury prevented him from defending his win at the Western States 100. Luckily, he bounced back in a big way, winning OCC in August and then the Long Trail World Championship in September - the second individual gold medal of his career.

On the other hand, Katie is crowned TROY for the second year in a row. She started with a win at Madeira Island Ultra Trail before winning and setting a new course record at the Hardrock 100 in July. Only three weeks later she was second at Sierre-Zinal before winning the Long Trail World Championship in September.

This episode is part of Freetrail's annual Trail Runner of the Year Rollout -- an opportunity to reflect on the 2025 season and celebrate the athletes who performed the best according to the global trail running community. We're proud to partner with All Conditions Gear to bring the awards to life.

Sponsors:

Grab a trail running pack from Osprey
Use code FREETRAIL25 for 25% off your first order of NEVERSECOND nutrition at never2.com
Go to ketone.com/freetrail30 for 30% off a subscription of Ketone IQ

Comments (3)