Trail Running and Social Media: the Rise of the Athlete-Influencer?
- Arthur Ehlinger
- Oct 12
- 10 min read
Updated: Oct 14
Trail running has entered a new era. What used to be a niche sport has become a global stage where performance, storytelling, and visibility now feed each other. Scroll through Instagram and you’ll see it: finish-line photos, highlight reels and behind-the-scenes moments that turn races into stories. The sport is changing, and so is what it means to be an athlete.
In this post, we’ll unpack how that transformation is unfolding. Through Sara Alonso’s rise, we’ll study the way race results and media presence now move in sync; explore how Holly Stables has built a sustainable career by blending knowledge and experience with authentic online engagement; and meet Théo Detienne, part of a new generation blurring the line between pro athlete and content creator.
Let’s get started!
Sports & Influence: An Historical Arc
We tend to think of “influencers” as a social media creation, but the idea is much older. Athletes have been shaping culture, commerce, and aspiration for thousands of years, and the spectacle of sport has always carried its own economy of fame. In ancient Rome already, gladiators were celebrities whose likeness were depicted on oil lamps, glass goblets, and everyday products to boost sales. Crowds even paid to watch them eat the night before a fight¹, an ancient version of “What I Eat in a Day,” long before the hashtag existed.
Fast forward to the late 20th century and we reach the Michael Jordan era: a new milestone, and the beginning of athletes as global cultural icons. Jordan’s dominance on the court, combined with his charisma, made him the perfect vehicle for Nike to launch the Air Jordan in 1984, the first truly influencer-driven product line. It marked the moment when athletic performance and commercial storytelling fused to turn athletes into media superstars, paving the way for the Williams sisters, Cristiano Ronaldo, and many more.
Running had its own versions of this in the 1990s, albeit on a smaller scale. German marathoner Uta Pippig, a three-time Boston and Berlin Marathon champion, achieved international fame and secured six-figure sponsorships with Nike². Meanwhile, Michael Johnson’s golden spikes at the 1996 Atlanta Games became as marketable a symbol as the medals he won³. But back then, access to that kind of global reach was tightly controlled. Only the very best athletes - those who could break through onto television screens, billboards, or the back pages of newspapers - could reach audiences at scale.
"The runners who cut through the noise today are those who combine high-level performances and compelling storytelling."
Today, that gatekeeping is gone. Podium finishes are no longer a prerequisite for building an audience. Figures like Lisa “The Fashion Jogger” Migliorini or Cru Mahoney have amassed millions of followers not for race results, but for the engaging, relatable content they produce. Social media has democratised influence, allowing anyone with a phone to shape trends.
At least, that’s the appealing surface (or disgusting for some).
The reality is that as the sport of running has grown, so too has the flood of running content online. In the past few years, the space has become increasingly saturated. Everyone wants to try their hand at it, which means standing out is harder than ever. Apart from a few outliers, the runners who cut through the noise today are those who manage to combine both: high-level performances and compelling storytelling. Much like in the Jordan era, athletic excellence and narrative power still go hand in hand.
In trail running, the obvious examples are Courtney Dauwalter and Kilian Jornet, two superstars who have dominated the sport for more than a decade. But Dauwalter and Jornet came of age in a less crowded social media environment and the landscape is now shifting. That's why, in this blog, I want to look at a younger athlete: Sara Alonso, the Spaniard whose recent rise offers a perfect lens to analyse how trail running and the media system now intersect.
Performance, Spectacle and Popularity
Between late 2022 and mid-2025 (as far as I could track her data), Sara Alonso’s rise shows just how tightly race performance, media spectacle, and social media growth are intertwined. Looking at her Instagram follower count as a proxy for popularity (from 85k to 151k in that period), we can trace clear spikes to key race moments:
October 2022 – Golden Trail Series Final: Sara hits her head off-camera and keeps racing, bleeding in front of the broadcast. The images spread quickly, and by November she had gained nearly 7,500 new followers.
August to December 2023: She wins the ETC at UTMB, follows up with another dramatic fall during the Golden Trail Series Final that goes viral (nearly 10 million views), and caps the year with a win at the SainteLyon 20k, one of France’s most iconic trail races. Over these 3 months, she posted 34 polished, race-focused content on her Instagram, and gained more than 15,000 new followers.
April 2024 – Golden Trail World Series, China: Sara wins by just seconds in a finish perfectly captured by organisers as a made-for-camera showdown. Within 2 months, her account grows by 8,200 followers.
May 2025 – Zegama: Wins one of the sport’s most prestigious races and gains nearly 8,000 new followers in a single month.
The trajectory is clear: performance creates visibility, and visibility amplifies performance’s impact.
But correlation is not causation. Take the example of Tom Evans and Mathieu Blanchard. Both have competed at the top level since around 2017, and both are runners of similar calibre (if anything, Tom Evans has the stronger record on paper). Yet their online presence tells a different story: Tom Evans has around 112k Instagram followers, while Matthieu Blanchard has nearly 600k. Follower counts, of course, don’t reveal anything about earnings, brand relationships, or sponsorship contracts. And that’s not the point here. What this contrast highlights is simply that there’s no straightforward causality between competitive performance and social media growth. Success on the trails doesn’t automatically translate into influence online. So how do we explain Sara Alonso’s rapid rise?
"What we end up consuming is a drama edited for us, with the pacing and tension of reality TV."
Sara's media success is not accidental. It’s not just down to raw talent, or random moments like her dramatic falls caught on camera. It depends on how effectively race organisers orchestrate the spectacle, shaping how performances are packaged, remembered, and replayed.
Sara Alonso has raced a lot in the Golden Trail Series (GTS), a points-based series of international trail races, which excels at producing digital content. The organisers build hype throughout the season, release slick highlight reels, post-race interviews, and carefully frame storylines to keep fans engaged. Their YouTube channel, with their flagship "Race Full Highlights", has amassed more than 20 million views, and is dedicated to building rivalries and storylines through longer-format videos. Sometimes the narratives emerge organically, sometimes it feels a little more staged. Either way, what we end up consuming isn’t just the competition itself, but a drama edited for us, with the pacing and tension of reality TV.
And this is exactly what brands want today. Storytelling and community engagement are no longer separate from athletic performance. They’re part of the same value package. You can be the best athlete in the world, but if you don’t generate visibility, you’re far less interesting to a brand. At the end of the day, a brand’s goal is to sell products. And in order to be sold, products need to be seen. For a brand, the more attention an athlete can generate, the more valuable they become (the same applies to races).
That doesn’t mean athletes need millions of followers on social media. This is precisely where big races, with their global reach and emphasis on spectacle, play a crucial role. They provide the stage. Athletes don’t have to manufacture the spotlight themselves, the event does it for them. Think of superstar athletes like tennis player Aryna Sabalenka or F1 driver Lewis Hamilton. Neither needs to be particularly active on social media. Their circuits already guarantee extensive media coverage, and in some cases, even Netflix shows (Break Point, Drive to Survive) that build storylines, rivalries, and narratives around them... Do you see the pattern?
As more money flows into trail running, the interests of races and profesionnal runners converge. Races grow bigger, generating more attention and becoming economic engines. This means that an increasing number of runners can generate more revenues as the market is expanding.
Personality is Key
But Sara Alonso is just one of many runners on the GTS circuit, and not all enjoy the same level of popularity. So something else must be at play.
A key factor in her rise is how effectively she leverages the attention she receives. She uses Instagram daily to share informal stories and pairs that with long-form YouTube videos on her own channel, offering a window into her life as a professional runner. For fans, this creates a sense of access: we see not just the races but also the everyday routines behind them. Her personality is central to that appeal. When I met her during an ASICS training camp in 2024, she came across as genuinely funny, approachable, and natural. Exactly the qualities that translate into her online presence. And it’s that authenticity that makes her following stick.
The same pattern applies to what we might call semi-professional runners: those who can’t live solely off prize money or performance-based sponsorships. For them, visibility becomes a way to sustain a career in the sport.
Take French ultra-trail runner Ugo Ferrari: a six-time top-30 finisher at UTMB with an index of 801, he may not be at the very front of the pack, but he’s still firmly among the top 1%. Alongside brand deals with Altra and Baouw Nutrition (among others), he works as a coach, runs a subscription-based community, and speaks at events. What makes this possible is the combination of his high-level running ability and his funny and straighforward personality which attract a large and loyal following on social media (36k followers on Instagram).
Closer to home, the UK’s own Holly Stables shows a similar trajectory. An ex-international marathoner, now 48 years old, she remains competitive on the trails, but not at a level that can sustain her financially through racing alone. She's active on social media (24k followers on Instagram) where she shares insights into her everyday life. This drives traffic to her coaching business and increases her value to sponsors. She’s currently backed by the American brand Janji and was recently supported by SportsShoes and Salomon for The Speed Project Solo, a 340-mile, unsanctioned race from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
For Ugo and Holly, it’s the combination of performance, personality, and visibility that makes a ‘portfolio career’ possible, allowing them to keep building a livelihood within the world of trail running. Of course, they need to be good at what they do, whether it’s coaching, producing content, or building communities, but the real key lies in turning attention into value.
Crucially, what Sara, Mathieu, Ugo, and Holly share is that their value to brands doesn’t rest solely on results. The main benefit is that if they underperform or get injured, their visibility provides a safety net. By contrast, a professional runner who relies solely on results, without a strong fan base, risks a far more precarious situation. And, as Holly’s career shows, it also offers longevity: when peak performance fades, they can transition more seamlessly into coaching, media, or other roles within the sport.
New Networks of Influence
Beyond individual personalities, visibility in trail running is increasingly shaped by collaborations. A good example is New Balance athlete Théo Detienne (UTMB index 876) whose trademark mid- and post-race push-ups have become a rallying gesture for his followers, many of whom now share their own versions on social media. His homemade motto - “Life is hard, but not mine” - has even made its way onto T-shirts through a collaboration with the French collective and indie media Les Genoux dans le Gif. Around UTMB, Detienne often appeared alongside Clément “Clem qui court” Defrenne, the new French social media icon whose rise over the past year has been meteoric. Together, they illustrate how the line between professional runner and content creator is increasingly (and sucessfully) blurred. Despite what purists might think, most of these content creators respect the sport. And professional athletes respect them in return. The result is a positive feedback loop: by appearing together, sharing audiences, and amplifying each other’s reach, they help one another grow.
Similar dynamics exist in the UK, with personalities like Damian Hall, Allie Bailey or Gary House, collaborating on projects. But compared to France, these efforts feel more fragmented and haven’t reached the same scale. Notably, high-performing UK athletes such as the local legend Mark Darbyshire (UTMB index 883), or Josh Wade (UTMB index 886), 3rd place at UTMB 2025, remain largely absent from social media, which limits their visibility beyond the racing circuit (although Josh Wade is increasingly playing the game). That’s not necessarily a problem, but it does suggest untapped potential.
It’s important to note that building visibility isn’t just about chasing likes or popularity. In France, we’re seeing how a strong, unified network of athletes, content creators, and independent media can lift the entire sport.
It’s a virtuous cycle: more attention brings more money, which allows more athletes to turn professional, raising the level of performance and the spectacle itself. That spectacle draws in new audiences, feeding the loop again. Of course, like any attention economy, it’s not without imbalance. But when it works, everyone, from elite runners to fans, benefits.
Of course, the obvious objection is: “Not everyone is good at social media.” And that’s fair. Some people are naturally comfortable on camera; others find it awkward or forced. But like any skill, it can be learned. Another criticism: “What if athletes just don’t enjoy it?” That’s true too. Constant visibility can be exhausting, and not every athlete wants to live under the spotlight. Still, every profession comes with parts that aren’t enjoyable, and trail running is no exception.
In many established sports like football, Formula 1 or tennis, media engagement is already built into the job, often even mandated by contract⁵. Trail running isn’t there yet, but it’s moving in that direction. No one is forcing professional (or aspiring professional) trail runners to be active on social media, but they should at least understand the trade-offs. Stepping back from it may protect their peace of mind, but it can also mean missing out on opportunities, visibility, and long-term career resilience. Not just for them, but also for the sports in general.
In the end, trail running today might not only be about how fast you run, but also about how well you’re seen. And as with most things, the key may lie in balance: between performance on the trails and self-disclosure online.
Sources:
Why gladiators were the influencers of Ancient Rome. Claire Turrell (2024) The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/gladiator-ii-influencers-ancient-rome/
Uta Pippig Is Quick to Capitalize on That Wall Coming Down. Jim Hodges (1995) Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-04-16-sp-55313-story.html
Classic finals: The man with the golden shoes. Anon (2020) Olympics. https://www.olympics.com/en/news/classic-finals-the-man-with-the-golden-shoes
Instagram User Saralonso5. Anon (2025) SocialBlade. https://socialblade.com/instagram/user/saraalonso5
“The Media Answer”: How Athletes Conceptualize Their Relationship to the Press in the Players’ Tribune. Michael Mirer (2023) Communication & Sport, 13(2), 245-265. https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795231217169
