UTMB or Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, if you choose the fancy version of the name is, in both ways, the most popular mountain ultramarathon in the world. The essence of the event is the 172 kilometer race that goes around Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Western Europe, thru three countries, France, Italy and Switzerland. With more than 10.000 meters of ascent, the length is basically dubbed in difficulty by an incredible overall effort. Between 28th of August and 3rd of September 2023 the two decades mark was touched, because the first edition, as a paradox, was held in 2003.
UTMB was interrupted only by COVID-19
I am mentioning a paradox because UTMB became so popular in a short time frame, while other races, especially from the USA, have longer history and are highly popular, but cannot compare with UTMB as of today. Even though 20 years passed since the first edition, one event was cancelled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from this, the consistency was full and for the first time, an American male runner, Jim Walmsley, won the race. A highly popular event among amateur runners as well, UTMB claims a huge number of DNFs (Did Not Finish) each year. More than 900 in 2023.
How do the rankings look like
This is least important because, in the end, the queen race of UTMB, the 172 kilometers run, is considered a sort of Champions League of the sport and transforms Chamonix into one of the most important cities in Europe for one week. At the end of the day, the results are the ones that are tangible. This is why, with the help of the internet, I’ll share with you some tables, some rankings, that wrap up the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc after its 20th edition – if it had taken place in 2020, we would talk about the 21st edition.
| Year | Distance | Winner Male | Country | Time | Winner Female | Country | Time |
| 2003 | 153 km | Dachhiri Dawa Sherpa | Nepal | 20:05:59 | Kristin Moehl | USA | 29:38:24 |
| 2004 | 155 km | Vincent Delebarre | France | 21:06:18 | Colette Borcard | Switzerland | 26:08:54 |
| 2005 | 155 km | Christophe Jaquerod | Switzerland | 21:11:07 | Elizabeth Hawker | England | 26:53:51 |
| 2006 | 158 km | Marco Olmo | Italy | 21:06:06 | Karine Herry | France | 25:22:20 |
| 2007 | 163 km | Marco Olmo | Italy | 21:31:58 | Nikki Kimball | USA | 25:23:45 |
| 2008 | 166 km | Kilian Jornet | Spain | 20:56:59 | Elizabeth Hawker | England | 25:19:41 |
| 2009 | 166 km | Kilian Jornet | Spain | 21:33:18 | Kristin Moehl | USA | 24:56:01 |
| 2010 | 88 km | Jez Bragg | England | 10:30:37 | Elizabeth Hawker | England | 11:47:30 |
| 2011 | 170 km | Kilian Jornet | Spain | 20:36:43 | Elizabeth Hawker | England | 25:02:00 |
| 2012 | 103 km | François D’Haene | France | 10:32:36 | Elizabeth Hawker | England | 12:32:13 |
| 2013 | 168 km | Xavier Thevenard | France | 20:34:57 | Rory Bosio | USA | 22:37:26 |
| 2014 | 167 km | François D’Haene | France | 20:11:44 | Rory Bosio | USA | 23:23:20 |
| 2015 | 170 km | Xavier Thevenard | France | 21:09:15 | Nathalie Mauclair | France | 25:15:33 |
| 2016 | 170 km | Ludovic Pommeret | France | 22:00:02 | Caroline Chaverot | France | 25:15:40 |
| 2017 | 167 km | François D’Haene | France | 19:01:54 | Núria Picas | Spain | 25:46:43 |
| 2018 | 170 km | Xavier Thevenard | France | 20:44:16 | Francesca Canepa | Italy | 26:03:48 |
| 2019 | 170 km | Pau Capell | Spain | 20:19:07 | Courtney Dauwalter | USA | 24:34:26 |
| 2020 | cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic | ||||||
| 2021 | 170 km | François D’Haene | France | 20:45:59 | Courtney Dauwalter | USA | 22:30:54 |
| 2022 | 170 km | Kilian Jornet | Spain | 19:49:30 | Katie Schide | USA | 23:15:12 |
| 2023 | 170 km | Jim Walmsley | USA | 19:37:43 | Courtney Dauwalter | USA | 23:29:14 |
Source: wikipedia.org
UTMB, by country – male and female
Now, UTMB is not only about this race becoming a mass market event it added many more encounters, to try and include people at every level. Apart from the 172 kilometers, two well-known are the OCC and CCC, but on the Wikipedia reference provided above, you can find additional information on those. To me, these are only side races that nobody is really interested in, compared to the main event, so I won’t make any comments there. However, I will provide another ranking where you can see what countries are involved in terms of all-time top three finishes, both for men and women. And, all together, there are only 18.
| UTMB Males | UTMB Females | |||||||||||
| Nation | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Podium | Nation | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Podium | |||
| 1 | France | 9 | 4 | 5 | 18 | 1 | USA | 8 | 0 | 2 | 10 | |
| 2 | Spain | 5 | 6 | 7 | 18 | 2 | England | 5 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
| 3 | Italy | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | France | 3 | 3 | 9 | 15 | |
| 4 | Nepal | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | Spain | 1 | 7 | 5 | 13 | |
| 5 | Switzerland | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | Switzerland | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |
| 6 | England | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | Italy | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| 7 | USA | 1 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 7 | Luxembourg | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| 8 | Hungary | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | Sweden | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 8 | Germany | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 9 | Czech Republic | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 8 | Sweden | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 9 | Canada | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 8 | Lithuania | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||||
| 8 | Romania | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||||
| 9 | Japan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
Photo source: pixabay.com