Leah Yingling

About

Leah Yingling is an American ultrarunner and biomedical engineer from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, whose career has been shaped as much by resilience as by talent. A high school cross-country runner, she earned a double major in biomedical and materials science engineering at Carnegie Mellon and a graduate degree in biomedical informatics from the University of Utah. After surviving a sexual assault during a college run — a trauma she has spoken about publicly to reclaim running and advocate against sexual violence — she channelled her return to the sport into ever-longer distances, discovering trail ultrarunning through the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club in 2014 and completing her first 100-miler at the Bear 100 in 2018. Now based in Salt Lake City, working in the electrophysiology division of a medical device company and coached by Megan Roche, she has become one of the most consistently high-performing women in the sport. Career highlights include back-to-back top-ten finishes at Western States 100 and UTMB Mont-Blanc in 2023 (ninth, sub-18 hours; eighth), representing Team USA at the 2022 Trail World Championships 80K in Thailand, winning the Quad Rock 50 Mile and Swiss Alps 50K in 2024, and ranking 8th on the 2024 North American Ultrarunner of the Year list.

Notable Wins

• — Western States 100 top-10 ×2 (9th 2023
• — sub-18h)
• — UTMB 8th 2023
• — Trail World Championships 80K Team USA 2022
• — Quad Rock 50M 2024 winner
• — Swiss Alps 50K 2024 winner
• — Laurel Highlands 70M 2019 winner (women's CR 13:18:48)
• — 8th UltraRunner of the Year 2024

Race History