Breaking: Unheralded American Ethan Shuley runs 2:07:13 at Osaka Marathon!

Looks like 8 Japanese guys, not 6, beat him in this race. Regardless of the number, there were more Japanese runners in this single race (not even Tokyo, which should have way more talent) faster than him than faster Americans in every marathon ever held until now.

That is, there are only 5 Americans who have ever run faster than him, all-time, but there were 8 Japanese runners faster than him in this one race on a weekend in February 2026. Unreal Japanese distance depth, and a total lack of American marathon depth.

In any case, kudos to Ethan - huge performance.

I’m definitely not reading this whole thread, but to the doping accusers:

The kid was the fastest high schooler in his entire state growing up by Sophomore year of hs. Yeah, admittedly weak state. But that is TALENT.

A guy like that finally puts it together after a bunch of bad years and little to no training and yeah, the results look surprising on paper.

Watch his YT vids and you’ll see he appears to have absolute bird bones for legs, ideal Marathon racing build, and trains way more than most Americans. No brainer, clean.

How does someone downvote a comment like this? Sheesh ..smh

I wrote about his high school days a few pages up. Take a look. He was NOT the fastest high schooler in the weak state of KY in his sophomore year of HS. He won his 2A 3200m title in 9:30 which would've put him 5th in 3A that year. And would probably have put him 1005 in the country. Yes, he's talented, but not elite HS talent in US. Having said that I'm inclined to believe he's clean, as others have pointed out, because he's mormon and lives and trains in a country that has extremely low levels of verified doping and cultural tolerance for doping. Not to say it's impossible. But pointing to his HS times/results in KY, especially without doing some simple research, is not a great defense. He was not nearly on the relative level of a Bobby Curtis or Jacob Thomson in their KY HS careers and neither of them are 2:06 guys, with or without super shoes.

He rocks/sways from side-to-side quite a lot. Wasted energy. Also a big Mauren Bi-Carb user........yes?

What about that Bradley University runner who ran and won 2025 LA Marathon on that hilly course. Osaka definitely not hilly.

Is he definitely Mormon? He consistently runs on Sundays

I would bet money his mother is Japanese. That is why he speaks Japanese fluently.

☝🏼🤓 Actually, Shuley had a 9:13 3200m as a hs soph. That shows at least as much raw talent as Thomson who was running 4:18 at that point in hs.

Either way, my point was that anyone running that fast that young, probably off of very average or subpar coaching has the innate qualities to become very successful. Pair that with his build and it is not surprising he is well suited to the marathon while also training more than many elites.

Frickin “wiThoUt doInG sOme SiMpLe reSeArch” me

And LOL his 9:13 actually was the fastest 3200 in Kentucky in 2014. Do your own research bucko. Ok done spamming

On the podcast it stood out to me that he said "I was a member of the church" when referring to a past event (perhaps attending BYU after growing up in Kentucky), although that could just be how he chose to phrase the sentence.

Phil Coppes at Grandmas in mid 80s

I am not sure that Phil ever ran Grandmas.

19 Jun 1982 3 2:16:21 a RD
Marathon Duluth MN/USA Grandma's

https://more.arrs.run/runner/5511

average runner comes out of nowhere running times hes never shown any kind of ability for until the last few months. no one makes this level of improvement especially when then were nothing special as a kid. clear case of...

TO THE GILLSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

You're high. He was a state champ as a HS sophomore and ran a 4:14 mile and 9:10 two mile as a HS junior. GTFOH until you're sober.

Tempo Japan did a video on him a few weeks ago. This is a youtube page worth following

Alright, alright. Easy big fella. You did more than some simple research and I stand corrected. (My plan worked perfectly?) 9:13 as a sophomore may well have been in the realm of Curtis and Thomson. I suppose my initial point was more to acknowledge that his sophomore state title was in 2A, but I was unaware of his actual PR and it's certainly possible he would've won the 3A race if he was in it. Congratulations, Whistle. I commend thee.

Not sure why this got so downvoted. He displays some East Asian craniofacial morphologic characteristics. Hopefully I said that in a politically-correct way.