Should Chicago be cut as a major?

Unlike "gold label," there aren't set criteria to be a major, so any argument about what should be a major is also even more an argument about what the criteria should be.

Whatever WMM says about the races, the point of using the term "major" was to imply that these races are comparable to golf majors or tennis grand slams. In other words, that they were the most prestigious and competitive races to win. For a while, that was a fair comparison; it was clear that all the top runners would run only WMMs, with very rare exceptions.

Unfortunately, some of these races, particularly in the US, have gotten lazy, and it's no longer a foregone conclusion that the world's best athletes will choose a WMM over a number of other excellent races with big budgets. Chicago is one of the worst; I think at this point it's pretty hard to make a plausible argument that Chicago is among the 6 top marathons in terms of elite fields and prestige of winning. You can make a lot of other arguments about why Chicago is a great race, but you can't really say that a Chicago podium matters nearly as much as it used to.

Boston has consistently weaker fields than Chicago and New York

3 of the last 6 women's world records have been set at Chicago. Got to tip the scales if it's close.

Marathon world records have been broken at Chicago 5 times: Steve Jones, Khalid Khannouchi, Catherine Ndereba, Paula Radcliffe and Brigid Kosgei. Shouldn't that be a factor?

Cut Chicago and add Los Angeles or San Francisco!

They shot themselves in the foot with the world class field by prohibiting pacers in Chicago. I think Chicago will rise in status now that they are having pacers again since the appeal of the course is how fast it is (and the lack of pacers undercut that appeal)..

Not including Boston in the WMM is like Ian Faith consoling Spinal Tap when their Boston gig was cancelled: "I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town"

Everyone knows when Boston and NYC are run. I have no idea when Chicago is. That's the difference on how far behind Chicago is in importance.

Chicago only pays out 5 international runners, and those 5 don't get paid nearly as much as New York or Boston. There should be prize money minimum numbers to be part of the 'world marathon majors'... World Athletics makes them seem all equal with their performance bonuses for world rankings, even though Chicago has by far been the weakest one in recent years, largely because of that lack of prize money. It's a bummer for professional runners, who generally aren't getting rich from it, having to potentially pass up some race offering more prize money just to do a 'world marathon major' that can get them a higher ranking. The rankings are becoming very important for qualifying for olympics/world championships.

Tell me you don’t follow marathons without telling me you don’t follow marathons.

Chicago is by FAR the strongest major in US.

Boston is an amateur race and New York isn’t much better.

1. London

2. Berlin

3. Chicago

4. New York

5. Tokyo

6. Boston

No one is getting cut but there are plans to add more. Currently the three races under consideration are:

Chengdu, China

Cape Town, South Africa

Sydney, Australia

The number of World Marathon Majors will grow, not shrink.

Yes, defining WMMs as the marathons that Kipchoge ran would have the added benefit that Kipchoge would have run all the majors by definition.

Marathon majors are for the masses, not the pros or cash hunters. Those races have the best coverage, highest prices, largest fields and are in the most accessible large cities in stable countries. Milan, Valencia and Seoul all have issues and discourage non-locals. Tokyo is also like this but has the largest crowd (1 million plus).

Marathon majors are for the masses, not the pros or cash hunters. Those races have the best coverage, highest prices, largest fields and are in the most accessible large cities in stable countries. Milan, Valencia and Seoul all have issues and discourage non-locals. Tokyo is also like this but has the largest crowd (1 million plus).

It may be true, but doesn't change the fact that outside Kosgei they have had weak fields for 10 years now. They can't just rest on their history - they need to maintain their status

What issues does Valencia have? How does Milan discourage non-locals?

Both have incredibly difficult processes for entry if you are not residing in or from Italy/Spain. It would be cool to have more European majors but they are not the most accessible for outsiders right now.