Bart Swings won the BMW Berlin Marathon inline skating race for the tenth time on 26 September 2026, finishing in 57 minutes and 30 seconds at age 35.
Two minutes clear through Berlin
The race set off at 12:20 p.m. along Straße des 17. Juni, with 2,000 skaters looping past Charlottenburg Palace and back to the Victory Column. Swings held a small lead at halfway and then kept stretching it through the five-lap course.
He won by two minutes and eleven seconds over a chasing group of seven. Frenchman Nolan Beddiaf edged German Felix Rijhnen for second, both clocking 59:41. Swings had so much room that he celebrated his landmark victory well before the Brandenburg Gate.
Ten titles, one course record
Swings also owns the course record of 56:45, set in 2022, a mark that put him in the event's Hall of Fame. His winning run began in 2013 and turned the Berlin inline marathon into a personal showcase. His average speed in 2026 was 44.17 km/h.
The win adds another layer to a rare dual-career. Swings is the reigning Olympic champion in the mass start on ice, having taken gold at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games after silver in Pyeongchang four years earlier.
"I will mainly enjoy the fact that I can skate through the streets of Berlin again," he said before the start. He missed the 2025 edition — reports cited either Olympic preparation or a knee injury — but the absence only sharpened his return.
The course carried him past the Landwehr Canal, Potsdamer Platz and Gendarmenmarkt before the finish beside the Gate.
