TCS NYC MARATHON

November 2, 2025

Marcel Hug

Susannah Scaroni

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good morning everyone. Welcome to the 2025 TCS New York City Marathon professional athlete press conferences. My name is Lorna Campbell. I'm delighted to be your moderator for the press conferences today.

Without further ado, we have our Wheelchair champions press conference. I'd like to invite to the stage Marcel Hug of Switzerland, who finished today's race in a time of 1:30:16, and American homegrown talent Susannah Scaroni, who finished in a time of 1:42:10. Welcome.

Marcel, congratulations. You looked incredibly strong out there yet again today. How did you feel over the 26.2 miles?

MARCEL HUG: Thank you very much. It was a great day. Everything went well. (Audio cut out). Very, very happy to come in first.

THE MODERATOR: It was a challenging race here in 2024.

MARCEL HUG: It feels surreal to win so many times here in New York. It's really, really meaningful to me. There's so many things fit together so that you can finish first. On this course, on this challenging course, on this really unique marathon, it really means a lot to win a seventh time.

THE MODERATOR: Susannah, over to you. It's really a solo race for most of the way and a victory today. How does it feel to take your third TCS New York City Marathon title?

SUSANNAH SCARONI: It feels amazing. We had an incredible field today and the biggest field we've ever had, everyone you'd want there. For me, it means a lot racing against the strongest women in the world and pushing myself.

I knew they were behind me, so I tried to just keep my pace as efficient and strong the entire way, and we are blessed with amazing weather, and it helped a lot for me to do that.

THE MODERATOR: You know the course really well. Looking at today specifically, what was your hardest moment, and what was your happiest moment out there.

SUSANNAH SCARONI: I would say my hardest moment happened on the long stretch before you get into Manhattan. That was the one part I had to start thinking, okay, let me start counting strokes, make sure I don't get my brain too focused on how long that is.

Really happy moment, I think, happened in Central Park today. The colors are incredible. Amanda McCrory was on the car, and I could see her, so it was really motivating. I knew we were getting close. It really felt good.

THE MODERATOR: You're both winners of the Abbott World Marathon Major Series for 2025. Marcel, this is your sixth series win, and Susannah your second. Can you both sum up the series as a whole. Marcel, you won 6 of the 7 this year, Susannah 4 of the 7.

Marcel first, how has the year been overall for you?

MARCEL HUG: For me, the year was incredible. Again, I was not in Tokyo this year, but I was in all the other races and won them all. It was really an incredible year for me, very successful.

Unfortunately, the past two marathons, Daniel Romanchuk, maybe one of the strongest competitors, wasn't able to compete as he has an injury. It was really sad for him. I really hope he comes back soon.

But for me, yeah, again, it was a very good year.

SUSANNAH SCARONI: It means a lot. Every course, as we all know, is so different. To really -- I've worked really hard on just pushing myself, trying to be as efficient on different types of courses, use the years of experience to try to maximize my abilities on the technical parts.

It feels like an honor. I feel like it's a reflection of all of the years, all the people, all the work, and really grateful for that.

Q. Marcel, you lost a critical anchor point when your back strap broke. How much did you genuinely fear crashing or falling?

MARCEL HUG: There was no fear of crashing or fall. It was not an issue. The problem or the difficulty was to accelerate after the corner or uphills, as I don't have the support from the back. It was a bit more difficult. So I think I lost some seconds or even minutes on the course.

Q. Marcel, congratulations on your win in New York. You've got one more race this year. Is that correct? Is it a flat course, a challenging course like this or a hilly course?

MARCEL HUG: I have one more marathon in two weeks in Japan. It's only a full wheelchair marathon, and it's a very flat and fast course. I broke the world record 2021 on this course.

THE MODERATOR: Susannah, we'll just close with a final question to you. You may have seen the American women finished really strong in the Women's Open division today. How does it feel for you, being an American female, seeing the rise of all the amazing females in the sport of marathon running?

SUSANNAH SCARONI: It's so inspiring. I'm so grateful to be a woman in this day and age in sport. We know so much about how we don't know everything to maximize a woman's potential and how there's more and more research and more and more work going into that field. I think it's incredible. It's wonderful to be -- I'm a reflection of that, and I'm super pumped up.

We have L.A. 2028, so all the more to really elevate our country and our athletes moving into then.

Q. To help all of us understand more about the speed on the course, do either of you record your speed in the race, and can you tell us what your maximum speed was today and where that occurred?

MARCEL HUG: The maximum speed obviously is in the downhill. I think it was in the first downhill of the first bridge. I haven't looked on the speed of because I had to focus on the street, so I need to check.

I know from last year it was about 60 kilometers per hour. I don't know in miles, I'm sorry. Yeah, it really depends the speed. If you have downhill, it's much faster than if it's uphill. Or if you have a lot of turns, you have to slow down all the time and accelerate.

SUSANNAH SCARONI: I did actually see mine, and I was like, okay, don't worry about it, don't worry about it. It was on the Verrazano Bridge as well going down, and my speedometer showed over 34 miles an hour, so just about 35. On the same bridge, yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations and thank you to our wheelchair champions today, Marcel Hug and Susannah Scaroni, winners of the Abbott World Marathon Major series and today's TCS New York City Marathon.

We'd like to welcome Isadora Bailly, VP of Marketing at TAG Heuer to present the TCS New York City Marathon TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E5 to our champions today.