NYRR Media Center

Alexi Pappas, making her TCS New York City Marathon debut, is the 10,000-meter record-holder for Greece and represented her country in the distance at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, running a personal-best 31:36.

Pappas had led a group of U.S. Olympic Trials hopefuls at the 2014 Chicago Marathon before making her own marathon debut at the 2018 Chicago Marathon, clocking a 2:43:38. Her current personal best of 2:34:26 – less than a minute off the Greek national marathon record – came at the 2020 Houston Marathon right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

In 2020, she also published a video that went viral, openly describing her struggle with depression – she lost her mother to suicide – and calling for better care of elite athletes’ mental health. She has since developed into a role model on social media for young athletes, sharing her struggles to help others with their own.

Off the roads, Pappas is an award-winning actress and writer, having published her memoir in essays, Bravey, in January 2021 with a forward by Maya Rudolph. She also co-created and starred in the feature film Olympic Dreams alongside Nick Kroll – which premiered at the South by Southwest festival – and co-wrote, co-directed and starred in the feature film TRACKTOWN with a cast that included Rachel Dratch from Saturday Night Live and Andy Buckley from The Office. She has been profiled on the cover of the New York Times sports page, in Rolling Stone, on NPR’s All Things Considered, and was featured on the cover of Runner’s World magazine’s 50th anniversary issue alongside Kevin Hart as one of the two faces of the new running boom.

Pappas graduated from Dartmouth College as a three-time All-American and also ran for the University of Oregon in her fifth year in 2012, helping the team to their first NCAA cross country title since 1987.

She is married to Jeremy Teicher, with whom she also collaborates on films.