The ASICS Los Angeles Marathon honored wheelchair racing legend Jim Knaub and brothers Wesley and John Korir as its 2026 Golden Stars during this year's race weekend, recognizing their outsized contributions to the event's history.
Knaub, a three-time LA Marathon wheelchair champion (1989, 1991, 1992), became paralyzed after a 1978 motorcycle accident but went on to win five Boston Marathons and hold world records at every distance from 5,000 meters to the marathon. His advocacy helped transform public perception of adaptive athletics.
Wesley Korir is a two-time winner of the Los Angeles Marathon (2009 and 2010) and was the first person in nearly a decade to become a back-to-back champion of the race. He later won the 2012 Boston Marathon and set a personal best of 2:06:13 in Chicago. In 2013, Korir was elected to Kenya's National Assembly as an independent candidate representing Cherangany Constituency. He is running for parliament again in 2027. Together with his wife, Canadian runner Tarah McKay, he founded the Kenyan Kids Foundation and helped build a hospital in his hometown of Kitale.
John Korir, Wesley's younger brother, is also a two-time, back-to-back champion of the Los Angeles Marathon (2021 and 2022). He won the 2024 Chicago Marathon in a personal best 2:02:44, ranking eighth on the all-time men's list, and claimed his first Boston Marathon title last spring. He recently ran a new personal best of 2:02:24 at the Valencia Marathon in December 2025.
Launched in 2022, the Golden Stars program serves as the official precursor to the Los Angeles Marathon Hall of Fame.
For more information, visit LAMarathon.com.
Edited by SMDP Staff