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Seven-time Paralympic gold medallist and marathon world record holder Marcel Hug will seek to maintain his dominance of global long-distance wheelchair racing when the strongest men’s and women’s marathon fields to compete in Australia since the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games assemble for the highly anticipated Sydney Marathon this weekend.
Hug, the Swiss great and self-proclaimed ‘warrior by nature’, has won the past three Paralympic marathons in the T54 classification, as well as scores of major marathons from Berlin to Boston in an elite career spanning more than two decades.
However, Hug will need to overcome formidable challengers, including the two-time defending Sydney Marathon champion and three-time Paralympian Josh Cassidy from Canada and 2024 Paralympic marathon bronze medallist Japan’s Tomoki Suzuki.
Also in the powerful field are Paris Paralympics 5000 metres gold medallist Daniel Romanchuk from the US and London 2012 marathon winner, English great David Weir.
Paris 2024 triathlon medallist from The Netherlands Geert Schipper, 2022 Commonwealth Games marathon gold medallist JohnBoy Smith of England and accomplished racer Aaron Pike from the US also feature.
Leading the charge for Australia will be the nation’s leading men’s T54 distance wheelchair racer, Paris Paralympian Sam Rizzo, whose winning time of 1:31:12 in the Gold Coast Marathon last month was second only to Kurt Fearnley’s 2016 race record of 1:30:18.
“It’s really exciting… It’s the first time that there’s a world major marathon held here in Australia, so I’m quite honoured and privileged to be part of this history-making event,” Rizzo said.
“I absolutely love competing on the road. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.
“[I’ve] been putting in a lot of K’s, lots of road stuff, but also focusing for track for the New Delhi Worlds [World Para Athletics Championships] coming up. We do it because we love it.”
Rizzo said he hoped the outstanding field at this year’s Sydney Marathon would spark interest among potential future stars.
“If I could inspire a young kid with a disability to jump in a race chair after he sees a bunch of athletes doing what they do best, that would make me pretty happy,” he said.
The same goes for the women’s field, which – in the absence of Australian great Madison de Rozario, who is not competing – will be led by six-time Paralympic medallist and reigning Boston Marathon champion, Susannah Scaroni from the US, alongside Switzerland’s Manual Schar, the three-time Paralympic gold medallist who, in 2019, clean swept the six major marathons: Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York.
Also featuring are Sammi Kinghorn of Scotland, a five-time medallist at Paris 2024, England’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper, who took silver at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, and a legion of contenders including Yen Hoang (USA) and Michelle Wheeler (USA).
The T54 Para-marathon, when raced at the highest level, is contested by athletes in custom-built wheelchairs which are designed to be light and streamlined. Athletes wear helmets and protective gloves to safeguard against friction. The sport requires power, endurance and strategy.
Hug is the current world record holder in the T54 marathon, with a time of 1 hour, 17 minutes and 47 seconds in a race in Japan last year. Australian legend Kurt Fearnley still holds the Paralympic record of 1:23:17, which he set when he won gold at Beijing 2008.
By Zara Perry, Paralympics Australia.
Published 29 August, 2025.
