London Marathon adopts non-binary category ahead of 2023 registration

On Tuesday, The Boston Athletic Association announced that a non-binary category would be added to the 2023 Boston Marathon application. Right on their heels, the London Marathon has followed suit making the announcement on Wednesday.

London Marathon Events, the organization responsible for planning the London Marathon, made the announcement two weeks ahead of registration opening for the 2023 race which is set to take place April 23, 2023.

Event director, Hugh Brasher, said, “This is a significant step forward for the London Marathon as we continue our journey to make our event truly inclusive. We know there is still much more to be done, but changes such as this demonstrate our commitment to making the London Marathon an event that is for everyone.”

The new policy will also be spread across other large participation events put on by London Marathon Events including RideLondon and the Standard Chartered Great City Race, but the non-binary category will not be an available option for championship, elite and Good For Age races.

London Marathon Events is proving their mission to make their events all inclusive across the board. In July, they also put into effect new entry policies which would allow assisted participants in addition to putting support in place for pregnant and postpartum runners.

The planning committee has had a great role model in the policy changes and guidelines with UK Athletics adopting the non-binary guidelines from Scottish Athletics back in 2018. The guidelines offer advice on including non-binary athletes and in 2019, Scottish Athletics added the non-binary category to their events.

The idea of non-binary categories has been a hot topic in the athletic world for the last few years, but had a spotlight on it this past spring and this summer with FINA’s work toward creating a non-binary category to include athletes across the board in international swimming events.

With the changes being made in multiple sports in the last few years alone, there is a strong chance that non-binary categories will be seen more frequently with the possibility of those changes being incorporated on a grander stage in the future.