Ruth Croft is a New Zealand trail and ultramarathon runner from Stillwater, a small town on the West Coast of the South Island. Born in 1989, she showed early promise in track and cross country, winning the New Zealand under-20 national championship and representing her country at the 2006 World Junior Championships in the 3000 metres steeplechase. After running collegiately in the United States, she moved to Taipei, Taiwan, where she rediscovered running on her own terms through trail running.\n\nCroft has built one of the most versatile resumes in trail running. She won the CCC in 2015, claimed back-to-back Marathon du Mont-Blanc titles in 2018 and 2019, took silver at the 2019 Trail World Championships in Portugal, and won the Western States 100 in 2022 in 17:21:30. Her victories span distances from 50K to 100 miles across multiple continents, including the Tarawera Ultramarathon, Ultra-Trail Cape Town, and Transvulcania.\n\nIn 2025, Croft won the UTMB in 22:56:23, becoming the first woman and only the second person ever to win the OCC, CCC, and UTMB. The victory cemented her status as one of the greatest trail runners of her generation. Away from racing, she is studying naturopathy and herbalism.