Leah Yingling

About

Leah Yingling is an American ultrarunner and biomedical engineer from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, whose athletic career has been shaped as much by resilience as by talent. A high school cross-country runner who competed at the Pennsylvania state championships, she earned a double major in biomedical and materials science engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and a graduate degree in biomedical informatics from the University of Utah. After surviving a sexual assault during a college run — a trauma she has spoken about publicly to reclaim running on her own terms and to advocate against sexual violence — she channelled her return to the sport into ever-longer distances. She discovered trail ultrarunning through the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club in 2014, ran her first 50K in 2015, and completed her first 100-miler at the Bear 100 in 2018. Now based in Salt Lake City, working in the electrophysiology division of a medical device company and coached by Megan Roche, she has become one of the most consistently high-performing women in the sport. Career highlights include back-to-back top-ten finishes at Western States 100 and UTMB Mont-Blanc — including ninth place and sub-18 hours at Western States and eighth at UTMB in 2023 — representing Team USA at the Trail World Championships 80K in Thailand in 2022, winning the Quad Rock 50 Mile and Swiss Alps 50K in 2024, and being named 8th on the 2024 North American Ultrarunner of the Year list. She maintains a training volume of 60–70 miles per week while producing results that consistently rank among the world's best.

Notable Wins

• — Western States 100 top-10 ×2 (9th 2023
• — sub-18h)
• — UTMB 8th 2023
• — Trail World Championships 80K Team USA 2022
• — Quad Rock 50M 2024 winner
• — Swiss Alps 50K 2024 winner
• — Laurel Highlands 70M 2019 winner (women's CR 13:18:48)
• — 8th UltraRunner of the Year 2024

Race History