Running News Daily

Researchers assess the potential benefits—and downsides—of the hundreds of bioactive compounds in your morning brew

A few years ago, researchers in Spain combed through the results of more than 7,000 urine samples tested for doping at competitions in various Olympic sports. Overall, 76 percent of the samples contained caffeine, with the highest concentrations found in cycling, track and field, and rowing. Frankly, I’m surprised that the number wasn’t higher, given how effective caffeine is as a performance booster and how widespread coffee consumption is more generally.

But I’m conflating two different things. Coffee, as a new review paper in the Journal of International Society of Sports Nutrition points out, is not just liquid caffeine. I’ve written many, many articles about research into caffeine’s performance-boosting powers, almost all of which uses pills to provide a carefully controlled dose of caffeine. In contrast, many of my running friends swear by their pre-workout or pre-race coffee. The new review, from a group of researchers led by Lonnie Lowery of Walsh University, asks whether coffee—“a complex matrix of hundreds of compounds”—provides the same athletic benefits as an equivalent dose of caffeine, or whether there are additional pros and cons. The short answer: it’s not clear.

You can make a reasonable argument that coffee is less effective than caffeine as a performance aid. The most obvious problem is that it’s hard to know exactly how much caffeine you’re getting in a cup of coffee. It depends on what kind of beans you’re using, how they’re prepared, how big your cup is, and so on. One study that tested a variety of store-bought espressos found caffeine levels ranging from 51 milligrams per serving at Starbucks to 322 milligrams per serving at Patisserie Francois.

Even if you stick with a consistent source of coffee with a known amount of caffeine, getting in the optimal performance-boosting dose might be a challenge. Sports scientists typically recommend taking between 3 and 6 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight an hour before competition.

For a typical medium-roast coffee, that works out to two to four cups (16 to 32 ounces), depending on body size. That’s a lot of coffee—and caffeine from coffee appears to be absorbed more quickly than from capsules, which means you might want to finish downing all that liquid less than an hour before competition.

A further problem is that some of the other substances in coffee might interfere with the action of caffeine. The main source of that concern is a 1998 study that compared performance under five different conditions: water with placebo capsule, water with caffeine capsule, decaffeinated coffee, decaffeinated coffee with caffeine capsule, and regular coffee. In a half-hour running test, performance was only increased with water-with-caffeine-capsule trial. Since caffeine levels were identical in the coffee and the decaf-plus-caffeine-pill trials, that suggests that something in the coffee—perhaps chlorogenic acid, one of coffee’s key antioxidant compounds—was interfering with the performance boost of caffeine.

To be fair, subsequent research has mostly suggested that coffee works just as well as caffeine. This 2018 study, for example, found that coffee boosted one-mile run time by 1.9 percent compared to a placebo, and by 1.3 percent compared to decaffeinated coffee. Other studies have also found performance boosts from coffee, at least when taken in quantities that provide a known and sufficient dose of caffeine.

If anything, the results of that 2018 study raise the opposite question. Decaf was 0.6 percent faster than placebo. That wasn’t a statistically significant difference, but is it possible that coffee itself has performance benefits independent of its caffeine content?

The case in favor of coffee is based on all its other bioactive ingredients: most prominently polyphenols like chlorogenic acid that may influence blood flow and glucose levels, but also various minerals, melanoidins produced in the roasting process that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and small amounts of carbohydrate, protein, and fat. The review takes an exhaustive dive into what these various substances might do for performance, listing their “neuromuscular, antioxidant, endocrine, cognitive, and metabolic effects,” but actual evidence of a performance boost is very thin on the ground.

To me, the strongest evidence that coffee might have some positive effects independent of caffeine comes from a different line of research. Back in 2018, I wrote about a study linking the effects of caffeine to a gene that affects caffeine metabolism. Roughly half the people in the study were fast caffeine metabolizers, and they got a big performance boost from caffeine in a 10K cycling trial. Most of the rest were medium metabolizers, and they got a negligible performance boost. The final 8 percent of subjects were slow metabolizers, and caffeine actually made them slower, perhaps because the positive effects of caffeine in the brain were outweighed by negative effects on blood circulation that persisted for longer.

This particular study used caffeine pills, but it emerged from an earlier line of research on the health effects of coffee. Big population-level studies have produced conflicting results about whether drinking lots of coffee is good or bad for you. University of Toronto researcher Ahmed El-Sohemy has suggested that this is because the effects depend on how you metabolize caffeine. He has shown, for example, that fast metabolizers have a lower risk of heart attack if they drink one to three cups of coffee a day, perhaps thanks to all those antioxidants and polyphenols and so on. Conversely, slow metabolizers have a 36 percent higher risk of heart attack if they drink two to three cups of coffee a day.

The implication here is that, at least for some aspects of long-term health, coffee is good for you but caffeine is bad for you. Fast caffeine metabolizers get the caffeine out of their system quickly, so the positive effects dominate. Slow metabolizers have the caffeine in their system for longer, so the negative effects take over. A key point: in a talk I saw earlier this year, El-Sohemy said that people’s subjective experience of how caffeine affects them is not a good predictor of whether they’re fast or slow metabolizers. (He does run a company that sells genetic testing of caffeine metabolism, so take that claim for what it’s worth.) My overall take, then, is that decaffeinated coffee probably has some good stuff in it, but there’s no convincing evidence that it will make you faster.

In the real world, the number one reason most of the athletes I know drink coffee before workouts and races is that it reliably makes them poop. That’s a discussion that Lowery’s review doesn’t get into, but it’s not insignificant for endurance athletes. If that’s your rationale, then by all means carry on. Drinking coffee is also a comforting and familiar routine for many people. But if you’re also hoping to harness the performance-boosting power of caffeine, then the main conclusion from the review is that you should take some time to figure out how much caffeine your favorite coffee contains, how much you usually drink, and decide whether you want to raise (or lower!) the dose, perhaps in combination with caffeine pills.

Some victories are measured by finish times. Others are defined by the obstacles overcome simply to reach the starting line.

For American Paralympic swimmer Ali Truwit, completing the New York City Marathon represented far more than covering 26.2 miles. It was the culmination of an extraordinary journey of survival, resilience, and unwavering determination that began with a life-altering shark attack just two years earlier.

On a crisp November morning in 2025, Truwit crossed the iconic finish line wearing a carbon-fibre running blade, fulfilling a promise she had made while recovering in a hospital bed after losing her lower left leg. The emotional milestone marked another remarkable chapter in one of the most inspiring comeback stories in modern sport.

The road to that unforgettable finish began only days after Truwit celebrated a major personal achievement. In May 2023, she completed her first marathon in Copenhagen alongside her mother. Just ten days later, while enjoying a graduation trip to Turks and Caicos with former Yale swimming teammate Sophie Pilkinton, tragedy struck.

While the pair were snorkelling, a shark attacked Truwit, severely injuring her left leg. Displaying remarkable courage, the two swam approximately 55 metres back to their boat, where Pilkinton—then a medical student—quickly applied a tourniquet that stopped the bleeding and ultimately saved Truwit's life.

Doctors were forced to amputate her lower left leg on her 23rd birthday.

Even in the darkest moments of recovery, Truwit's determination never disappeared. Reflecting on having recently completed her first marathon, she joked with one of the first responders that at least she had managed to run a marathon before the attack. The responder's simple but powerful reply would remain with her throughout rehabilitation: "You'll run another one."

Those words became a source of hope during the long and demanding road back.

Only weeks after surgery, Truwit began learning to walk on a prosthetic limb before gradually returning to the swimming pool. The process was anything but straightforward. The water that had once been her sanctuary became a source of painful memories, yet she refused to allow fear to define her future.

Her relentless work ethic soon produced extraordinary results.

Less than 16 months after the attack, Truwit represented the United States at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, producing a sensational performance to claim both silver and bronze medals. Standing on the Paralympic podium was a powerful reminder of how far she had come in such a short period, and she dedicated those achievements to everyone who had helped save her life.

Still, another dream remained unfinished.

The New York City Marathon carried deep personal significance. It was not merely another endurance event but a symbolic return to the city where her life had changed forever. On November 2, 2025, she lined up in Staten Island accompanied by 13 family members and close friends, all proudly representing her nonprofit foundation, Stronger Than You Think. Among them was Pilkinton, the friend whose quick thinking had preserved her life on that unforgettable day in the Caribbean.

Together, they covered every mile of the marathon before celebrating an emotional finish that Truwit later described as being "over the moon."

Completing a marathon on a carbon-fibre running blade presents challenges far beyond those faced by able-bodied runners. The prosthetic demands greater strength from the hips, core, and remaining leg while requiring exceptional balance, coordination, and endurance. Truwit's preparation combined months of disciplined training, patience, and mental resilience as she effectively taught herself how to run again.

Her story extends well beyond medals and marathon finishes.

Inspired by her own recovery, Truwit founded Stronger Than You Think, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to helping individuals overcome physical and financial barriers following limb loss. Recognising that sports prosthetics can cost tens of thousands of dollars and are often not covered by insurance, the foundation provides financial assistance for prosthetic devices, supports water-safety education, and promotes opportunities within Paralympic sport.

The organisation has already helped provide more than 11 prosthetic limbs, delivered nearly $200,000 in direct support, and funded over 4,000 hours of water-safety lessons benefiting more than 700 young people.

Throughout her journey, Truwit has remained refreshingly honest about the emotional challenges that continue to accompany recovery. She has openly acknowledged that healing is an ongoing process and that grief can still come in waves. Rather than portraying an effortless comeback, she has demonstrated that resilience is built through persistence, even on the hardest days.

Her remarkable transformation resonates far beyond elite sport. While few people will ever experience the trauma she endured, countless runners and athletes understand the frustration of injury, disappointment, or rebuilding after adversity. Truwit's journey serves as a powerful reminder that recovery is rarely linear and that courage is often measured by the willingness to keep moving forward despite uncertainty.

Now looking ahead to the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games, Truwit continues to redefine what is possible. She is no longer known simply as the swimmer who survived a shark attack. She has become a Paralympic medallist, marathon finisher, advocate, and symbol of resilience whose story continues to inspire athletes around the world.

Her journey proves that while life can change in an instant, so too can the strength of the human spirit. Sometimes the greatest triumph is not returning to the person you once were, but discovering someone even stronger than you ever imagined possible.

Sprint and hurdles superstar Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has entered an exciting new chapter in her remarkable life, welcoming her first child with husband Andre Levrone. The four-time Olympic champion and women's 400m hurdles world record holder announced the birth of their daughter, Savannah Michelle Levrone, who was born on Sunday, July 12, 2026.

The couple shared the joyful news with an emotional message celebrating the arrival of their daughter and expressing gratitude to everyone who supported them throughout the pregnancy. Sydney described Savannah as "our blessing and our joy," while expressing excitement and faith for the future that lies ahead for their growing family.

The announcement marks a deeply personal milestone for one of the most accomplished athletes of her generation. Renowned for redefining the women's 400m hurdles through a succession of record-breaking performances, McLaughlin-Levrone now embraces a new role beyond the track as a mother.

The timing of the announcement adds another layer of significance. Just days earlier, Sydney reflected on the 10th anniversary of qualifying for her first Olympic Games at only 16 years old—a breakthrough that launched one of the most decorated careers in modern athletics. Ten years later, her journey has come full circle with another life-changing milestone, underscoring that her greatest moments continue to extend beyond sporting success.

The arrival of Savannah Michelle Levrone has been met with an outpouring of congratulations from athletes, fans, and the wider sporting community, who have celebrated the couple as they begin this new chapter together. As Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone steps into motherhood, the athletics world will undoubtedly continue to follow her inspiring journey—both on and off the track.

Ethiopia's Tsige Gebreselama produced one of the standout road running performances of the season on Sunday, storming to victory at the prestigious Boilermaker Road Race 15K in Utica, New York, with a sensational course record of 47:29.

From the opening kilometers, Gebreselama controlled the race with remarkable composure and precision, maintaining a relentless pace that ultimately erased the previous course record and secured one of the fastest performances ever recorded on the historic course. Her commanding display further reinforced her reputation as one of the world's leading road and distance runners.

The Ethiopian celebration continued as Melknat Wudu crossed the finish line in second place in 47:44, completing a dominant one-two finish for her country. Kenya's Priscah Cherono claimed third in 48:14 after a determined effort, rounding out a world-class podium in a race featuring some of the finest distance runners on the international circuit.

The battle behind the podium remained fiercely competitive. Kenya's Everlyn Kemboi finished fourth in 48:28, narrowly ahead of compatriot Selah Busienei, who clocked 48:31 for fifth. Ethiopia's Netsanet Desta and Alem Nigus Tsadik followed in sixth and seventh respectively, while Kenya's Mercy Cherono secured eighth place.

American athletes also delivered encouraging performances on home roads. Veteran Stephanie Bruce finished ninth in 50:40, with Jackie Gaughan completing the top ten in 51:02 to cap a strong showing for the host nation.

Boilermaker Road Race 15K – Women's Top 10 Results

1. Tsige Gebreselama (Ethiopia) – 47:29 (Course Record)

2. Melknat Wudu (Ethiopia) – 47:44

3. Priscah Cherono (Kenya) – 48:14

4. Everlyn Kemboi (Kenya) – 48:28

5. Selah Busienei (Kenya) – 48:31

6. Netsanet Desta (Ethiopia) – 48:46

7. Alem Nigus Tsadik (Ethiopia) – 48:48

8. Mercy Cherono (Kenya) – 50:23

9. Stephanie Bruce (United States) – 50:40

10. Jackie Gaughan (United States) – 51:02

The women's race combined exceptional depth with remarkable speed, as several athletes broke the 49-minute barrier in a contest that showcased the global strength of elite road running. Gebreselama's record-breaking run now stands as a new benchmark in the rich history of the Boilermaker 15K, adding another memorable chapter to one of the United States' most celebrated road races.

Kenya's Alex Matata delivered a sensational performance to claim the men's title at the prestigious Boilermaker Road Race 15K in Utica, New York, producing a dominant run that underlined his growing reputation as one of the world's finest road racers.

Matata surged to victory in an outstanding time of 42:24, mastering the demanding course with a display of strength, speed, and tactical brilliance. His commanding performance secured a memorable triumph in one of the United States' most celebrated road races, adding another significant international victory to his career.

Kenya's success was further highlighted by Kiprono Sitonik, who produced an equally impressive run to finish second in 42:53, completing a remarkable one-two finish for the East African nation. South Africa's Adam Lipschitz rounded out the podium after clocking 43:14 to claim third place following a determined effort.

The race featured a highly competitive international field, with American athletes Reid Buchanan and Hillary Bor finishing fourth and fifth respectively, while another Kenyan, Victor Shitsama, added to his country's strong showing by taking sixth place.

Matata's victory once again showcased Kenya's enduring strength in global road racing, as its athletes continued to dominate major international competitions through exceptional endurance, tactical awareness, and relentless finishing speed. His performance in Utica not only thrilled the spectators lining the streets but also reinforced the depth of Kenyan distance running on the world stage.

Men's Top 10 Results – Boilermaker Road Race 15K

1. Alex Matata (Kenya) – 42:24

2. Kiprono Sitonik (Kenya) – 42:53

3. Adam Lipschitz (South Africa) – 43:14

4. Reid Buchanan (United States) – 43:38

5. Hillary Bor (United States) – 43:40

6. Victor Shitsama (Kenya) – 44:02

7. Futsum Zienasellassie (United States) – 44:32

8. Charlie Sweeney (United States) – 44:37

9. Sam Lawler (United States) – 44:54

10. Tyler Berg (United States) – 45:08

With another major road racing title added to his résumé, Alex Matata continued his impressive 2026 campaign while reinforcing his status as one of the leading names on the international road racing circuit. The Boilermaker 15K once again delivered a high-quality contest, with athletes from across the globe producing memorable performances in one of the United States' most prestigious road races.

Eliud Kipchoge's remarkable World Tour continued on Brazilian soil as the Kenyan marathon icon completed the New Balance 42K Porto Alegre Marathon, crossing the finish line in 2:18:39 to place 12th overall during the second stop of his ambitious seven-continent global running tour.

Competing against a strong international field, the two-time Olympic marathon champion displayed the resilience and determination that have defined his legendary career. While the result was not among the victories that have made him one of the greatest marathon runners in history, Kipchoge once again demonstrated the unwavering commitment that continues to inspire athletes and fans across the globe.

Morocco's Zineddine Ouria claimed victory in a superb 2:08:49, with Kipchoge finishing 9 minutes and 50 seconds behind the race winner after navigating the demanding course in Porto Alegre.

Kipchoge began the race with controlled and confident pacing, reaching 5km in 15:34 before passing the halfway mark in 1:05:07. As the race entered its decisive stages, the pace gradually slowed, but the veteran marathoner pressed on with characteristic determination, completing the 42.195-kilometre challenge in 2:18:39.

For many, the story will be told through the finishing position. But for those who truly understand greatness, this journey is about far more than medals, records, or podium finishes. Kipchoge's World Tour is a celebration of the sport itself—an opportunity to connect with runners across every continent, inspire the next generation, and continue living by the philosophy that has become synonymous with his career: "No Human Is Limited."

The Brazilian appearance also carried added significance, coming shortly after Kipchoge was permanently honoured in Porto Alegre with his footprints unveiled at the entrance of Parque Harmonia—a lasting tribute to his extraordinary impact on distance running and his enduring legacy in the sport.

Once a champion. Forever an inspiration. Legends do not stop inspiring when the victories become fewer; they inspire because they never stop showing up. Through every stride, every finish line, and every challenge embraced, Kipchoge continues to prove that true greatness is measured not only by what an athlete wins, but by the lives they touch along the way.

With the second stop of his World Tour now complete, Kipchoge will turn his attention to the next chapter of his global adventure when he lines up at the Melbourne Marathon in Australia this October. Wherever he races, millions will once again follow the journey of a man whose legacy extends far beyond the stopwatch.