Stanford and Oxford Alum Financier Ashton Choi Sets a Historic National Korean Age Record for the 7 World Marathon Majors

Ashton Choi (Sanghyun Choi) crossed the finish line at the 2026 Boston Marathon this month, achieving the monumental feat of completing all seven of the Abbott World Marathon Majors (WMM). With this milestone, Choi has set a new historic Korean age record for conquering the seven-race circuit.
 

[Ashton Choi]

By completing the Boston course on April 20 (local time), Choi earned his coveted "Seven Star" medal from the WMM, widely considered the ultimate dream stage for marathoners worldwide. Following the recent addition of Sydney alongside Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York, completing the newly expanded seven-marathon system is regarded as a pinnacle achievement attained by only a tiny fraction of runners globally.
 
Following in the footsteps of renowned amateur marathoners such as Ahn Jung-eun and Kim Jae-young, Choi's accomplishment establishes a new historic benchmark for Korean athletes as the youngest to conquer all seven major races.
Having built his career at global financial institutions such as JP Morgan, BlackRock, and Barclays after graduating from Oxford, he currently works in deep tech investment. Ahead of his upcoming enrolment in the Stanford MBA program, he also actively serves as a Senior Fellow at Asia House and as an advisory committee member for the Korean government. Despite these fierce professional commitments, he carved out time in the early hours of every morning for intense training, traveling across the globe and running thousands of miles.
 
After crossing the finish line, Choi expressed his overwhelming emotion: "I still can't believe it. The challenge that began in Chicago with a doubtful 'Can I really do this?' has finally become a reality today as I crossed this finish line. It was an epic journey that tested my physical and mental limits, demanding early morning training sessions and numerous long-haul flights."

  

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