Canada should sprint to make one of its marathons a World Major race

Ben Kaplan is the author of Feet, Don’t Fail Me Now: The Rogue’s Guide to the Marathon and the owner of iRun magazine.

The best running races in the world are part of a series called the Abbott World Marathon Majors. There are eight in total: three in the U.S. in New York, Chicago and Boston, as well as in Berlin, Tokyo, London, Sydney and Cape Town. These aren’t just races, though: They’re Coachella for runners, Investment Summits for joggers, Davos for the oddballs who bring three pairs of shoes on vacation, none of which are leather or have heels.

In short, they’re amateur running’s Olympics: a way for competitive people with disposable income to achieve a difficult, expensive, but sought-after goal. The Majors are proud markers for the world’s best marathons – and being able to say they’ve performed on the world’s greatest courses is a key reason people run these races.

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Canada doesn’t have a race with such a designation – at least, not yet. But as international tourists look to avoid the U.S. under Donald Trump, and as the Majors expand – Sydney and Cape Town became part of the series over the last two years, and the Shanghai Marathon is currently being evaluated – this is a race we can win.

This country has runs that could qualify, including marathons in Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Montreal. These are world-class events with big-budget sponsors, prize money for winners and precisely measured courses, complete with sparkly race expos and throngs of spectators that increase every year.

But the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, a World Athletics Elite Label race that’s taking place this weekend and being televised for the first time this year, is the country’s best hope.

Not only does Toronto’s marathon have big-name sponsors like Peloton and Nespresso, and not only is it as loud and colourful as Chicago’s and New York’s, it’s in the conversation with Boston, the running event regarded as the best in the world. The city is a multicultural hub for running clubs, with a major international airport connected by a transit link that makes it easy to get downtown. Unlike marathons in New York and Boston, the starting line for Toronto’s Marathon isn’t in the middle of nowhere – it’s right on Yonge Street. Like Berlin and London, the course is flat and fast, which means marathoners can set records.

It’s high time Toronto became the next World Marathon Major. And such efforts would also have an ace in the hole in the race’s title sponsor, TCS, a billion-dollar IT firm that is already the title sponsor for three Abbott World Majors. With its green policies, network, AI sorcery and long-term vision – TCS signed a five-year sponsorship extension with Toronto this month – the company elevates moderately known races into global sensations with the power of a Taylor Swift.

Sure, Toronto’s marathon has things it needs to work on before it can race onto the world stage. Other Majors feature at least 27,000 marathon runners, and while the full Toronto race weekend counts roughly that many participants overall, only around 7,500 racers compete in its marathon segment. Race weekend would have to hold its 5K and half-marathon on Saturday, then triple its marathon participants on Sunday – no easy feat. But Toronto’s roads can handle the volume; the Sporting Life 10K shuts down Yonge Street for 25,000 runners, and while a 42-kilometre race would require more road closures than 10, race directors work best when working toward a difficult goal.

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Transit would also need to open at 4 a.m. on race day, for instance, so runners can get to their start line. Construction on the Gardiner Expressway would have to (finally) end. And the city would probably have to keep its bike lanes as a signal that mental and physical health are important here.

But the Majors designation would make it all worthwhile. When a race becomes a Major, it becomes more valuable as the world’s top runners gather to try to collect each of the Majors’ coveted stars. The 2025 Chicago Marathon added an estimated US$756-million to the local economy and delivered US$47-million to charities, both record-setting figures. Cash like that also buys support from the federal government, which can unlock huge events like the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics.

What makes a World Major also goes beyond the race itself. After Boston’s marathon, there’s a party in Fenway Park. In Berlin, there’s free transit for runners, and the iconic finish runs through the Brandenburg Gate. ASICS, the Toronto Marathon’s shoe sponsor, designs a limited-edition sneaker for Tokyo’s marathon every year, and New York stacks its race with celebs. Montreal is more fun than Toronto and has louder sports fans, Calgary’s got pipeline cash, Ottawa’s race weekend is larger and Vancouver’s is better-looking, but Canada’s biggest city has just enough of everything to blow the socks off Boston or Berlin. It doesn’t hurt that the Toronto International Film Festival shows that the city can party.

There’s a real running culture in this country, too. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow is a runner. Prime Minister Mark Carney runs marathons. And Canada’s best marathon runner, Rory Linkletter, puts up finishing times that compete with the fastest athletes in the world, finishing sixth in Boston in 2025 before getting even faster. Mr. Linkletter winning a World Marathon Major on Canadian soil would be like when the Blue Jays won the World Series at home in 1993.

There’s never been more runners, more attention or more money in marathons. The TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon is a worthy finish line for promoting Canadian marathons – and Canada – all over the world.