After dominating the outdoor season in 2026, Audrey Werro has given herself plenty of reasons to be proud. The Swiss middle-distance star won 16 of her 17 outdoor races and finished the season with 10 consecutive 800m victories. She also climbed to third on the women’s 800m all-time list. Despite these achievements, Werro is not ready to settle for what she has accomplished. As she looks ahead to 2027, the 22-year-old believes she can get even faster and make history by breaking a world record that has stood untouched since 1983.

“I have all the right keys, I just need to fine-tune a few details,” Werro told The Athletic while reflecting on her 2026 breakthrough season. The Swiss runner believes she has already built the foundation needed to challenge the world record, but she knows that small improvements in her race execution could make a significant difference.

The record she is chasing belongs to Jarmila Kratochvílová, who ran 1:53.28 in 1983. Werro came within 0.42 seconds of that mark in Zurich, clocking 1:53.70 and establishing herself as one of the fastest women ever to compete in the event. She also recorded two more outdoor 800m performances under 1:54 in 2026, all at Diamond League meetings. They came in Stockholm and Paris.

“I didn’t think I’d be able to run that fast or get so close to the world record,” Werro told The Athletic. “It was pretty incredible.” Rather than viewing her Zurich performance as the limit of what she can achieve, Werro sees it as proof that the record could be within reach. “To potentially break the world record, I just need more training,” she explained. 

Werro has already identified the parts of her race she wants to improve. She divides the 800m into eight sections of 100 metres, paying close attention to how she maintains her speed throughout the race. Her main focus is the fourth 100m, where she has sometimes struggled to maintain her pace as she approaches the halfway point. “The main thing is to pick up the pace every 100m,” she said. “If I don’t keep that in mind, I slow down without realizing.”

“In some races, I had a tendency to lose a bit of speed (at 400m),” she said. Improving that section could help her maintain momentum and put herself in a stronger position for the final lap. The closing stages are another area where Werro believes she can make gains.  Those small adjustments could prove crucial if Werro is to challenge a world record that has survived for more than four decades. That ambition follows a breakthrough 2026 season built on the progress she made indoors.

Audrey Werro stuns Olympic Champion Keely Hodgkinson after losing first eight meetings

Werro’s breakthrough 2026 season began with a strong indoor campaign that laid the foundation for her remarkable outdoor success. She won races in Madrid and Belgrade before claiming silver at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in March, finishing behind Keely Hodgkinson. The result gave Werro valuable experience against the Olympic champion, who had also set a world indoor record of 1:54.87 earlier in the season.

Werro carried that momentum into the outdoor campaign, opening her Diamond League season with a victory in Rabat, Morocco, on May 31. However, her biggest breakthrough came a week later in Stockholm, where she faced Hodgkinson for the ninth time. Having lost their previous eight meetings, the Swiss runner entered the race with a major challenge ahead of her.

The race turned into a defining moment in Werro’s career. She followed the pacemaker through the first lap, reaching 400 metres in approximately 55.8 seconds. Hodgkinson then moved ahead with around 350 metres remaining, putting pressure on Werro to respond. But the Swiss star stayed close and produced a powerful finish on the home straight, overtaking the British runner to win in 1:53.98. Hodgkinson finished second in 1:54.33, setting a British record.

The victory was significant beyond the result. Werro had finally beaten one of the world’s strongest 800m runners and become only the third woman in history to break the 1:54 barrier. She was also the first woman since 1983 to run under that mark. “It was a huge surprise. I had no idea how I was going to run it,” Werro told The Athletic when reflecting on the Stockholm race. 

“Even during the race, I was questioning what I needed to do. Every 100m, I kept telling myself I had to stay with Keely Hodgkinson and push the pace.” Werro admitted that she did not fully appreciate the significance of her performance until after crossing the finish line. “When I crossed the finish line, I was just happy to have won,” she said. “Hodgkinson is incredibly strong and practically unbeatable for a long time. Finishing ahead of her was a huge achievement. It was only afterwards that I saw the time (1:53.98).”

The Stockholm victory proved to be the beginning of an extraordinary outdoor season. Werro followed it with wins in Ostrava on June 16 and Paris on June 28, where she lowered her personal best to 1:53.80. That performance made her the first woman to run under 1:54 twice.

She continued her winning run through the summer, claiming the Swiss national title before producing another major performance at the European Championships in Birmingham. After falling during her semifinal, Werro was reinstated into the final following officials’ review. She responded the next day by winning the European title in a championship-record 1:54.81, finishing ahead of Hodgkinson, who took silver in 1:55.01.

Werro then won in Lausanne on August 21 before returning to Switzerland for the Diamond League meeting in Zurich on August 27. There, she delivered the fastest performance of her career, running 1:53.70 to improve her personal best once again. The time moved her to third on the women’s 800m all-time list.

Her season continued with victory at the Diamond League Final in Brussels on September 5. She later finished her campaign by winning the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest on September 12, completing an unbeaten run across 10 outdoor 800m finals.