The elite wheelchair racers at the 2022 TCS London Marathon will be competing for the biggest-ever prize pot in the history of wheelchair racing.

The TCS London Marathon has increased the total prize structure across both the men’s and women’s wheelchair races by $57,800 – from $141,700 in 2021 to $199,500 this year. The new structure includes increased prize money for each of the top 10 finishers, while there are additional bonuses available for course records and the Abbott World Marathon Majors Flying 400 competition.

The winners of the men’s and women’s wheelchair race will receive $35,000 each, up from $25,000 last year, with second place receiving $20,000 and third $15,000. There are incremental increases for all finisher positions down to the 10th-placed athlete, who will receive $1,250.

The Swiss duo of Marcel Hug and Manuela Schär reigned supreme at the 2021 London Marathon and will be the ones to beat once again. Last year, the pair not only claimed dominant solo victories but also both smashed course records in the process.

Following last year’s win, Schär, the dominant wheelchair racer of her generation, now has three London Marathon titles to her name (2017, 2019 and 2021) and is the course record holder (1:39:52).

She has already won the B.A.A. Boston Marathon this year in her first Abbott World Marathon Majors race of the season, but the Swiss superstar is not unbeatable – at last year’s Paralympic Games Madison De Rozario (AUS) got the better of her to win the gold medal. 

De Rozario, the winner of the 2018 London Marathon and the two-time Commonwealth Games champion, returns to the race for the first time since 2019, while teenage German sensation Merle Menje, who was runner-up last year, is also in the field.

In the men’s race, Hug will expect a traditional battle with eight-time London Marathon champion David Weir (GBR) and Daniel Romanchuk (USA), the 2019 champion.

Romanchuk and Hug both displayed their marathon form in the spring by winning the first two Abbott World Marathon Majors of the year, with the American winning in Boston and Hug taking the title in Tokyo.