Ferdinand Airault

About

Ferdinand Airault is a French ultrarunner based in New York City who may be the most unusually credentialled athlete in the sport: a former quantitative trader at global financial firms in Hong Kong and New York who performs professionally as a stage magician, and who did not begin running competitively until 2018 when a corporate trail challenge in Hong Kong set him on a trajectory he would follow all the way to the start lines of some of the world's most prestigious 100-mile races. Known as The Magic Runner, he spent almost a decade in finance before walking away at the end of 2023 to pursue running and magic full-time — viewing the two pursuits as expressions of the same philosophy, the painstaking work behind the scenes that makes the finished product look effortless. The results that followed were immediate: wins at Hong Kong's Sai Kung 50km and the 9 Dragons Ultra 50km in 2021 and 2022, then in 2025 a victory at The Canyons Endurance Runs 100M in 16:18:13 — one of the most significant American-circuit performances of the year — followed by a fifth-place finish at the JFK 50 Mile in 5:34:50 and a win at the Hong Kong Coastal Marathon in early 2026. He holds a UTMB Index of 874, has signed with Athle St Julien in the French Alps while continuing to train out of Central Park, and is one of the fastest-rising French men on the current international ultra circuit.

Notable Wins

• — The Canyons Endurance Runs 100M 2025 (16:18:13)
• — JFK 50 Mile 5th 2025 (5:34:50)
• — Hong Kong Coastal Marathon winner 2026
• — Sai Kung 50km 2022 (1st)
• — 9 Dragons Ultra 50km 2021 (1st)

Race History