Ludovic Pommeret

The snowboarder who found running boring 🏂

Born in Grenoble, Ludo grew up in Valloire, in Savoie, where his father maintained the ski lifts. Snowboarding in winter, windsurfing in summer, anything but running: endurance bored him. Everything changed in 2000, when his brothers-in-law dragged him along to a very steep village race. Convinced they would beat him, they finished behind him. The young convert immediately aimed too high: he dropped out of the For’tiche, an ultra starting from Valloire, then out of the UTMB in 2004. Trail has to be earned. So he stepped back down to shorter formats: top 20 at Sierre-Zinal in 2007, 4th at the Templiers in 2008, then 3rd at the CCC in 2009. That same year, on the Diagonale des Fous, he tested thick-soled prototype shoes entrusted to him by his friend Nicolas Mermoud. He finished 2nd, and those odd soles became the Hoka Mafate 👟 . In 2015, his selection for the World Trail Championships in Annecy pushed him to hire a coach for the first time: 5th individually, he won the team world title 🇫🇷 .

The Chamonix Comeback 🔥

In late August 2016, the UTMB got off to a bad start for Ludovic Pommeret: with an upset stomach, he was in 48th place at Les Chapieux, around the 50th km. His coach sent a message to his wife Céline suggesting he drop out to preserve his World Championships. With no network coverage, she never received it 📶 . The Savoyard passed his rivals one by one and won in 22 hours and 2 seconds, at age 41, twelve years after his first start in Chamonix. What makes him unique? An ultra star who keeps a real job. An engineer at Skyguide, he designs simulators for air traffic controllers in Geneva and Zurich. On office days, he cycles to the airport and runs home 🚲 . The elevation gain waits for the weekend, in the mountains. With 3,000 km a year, while his friends devour 5,000, he relies on ski mountaineering in winter to spare his joints.

The Diagonale made him wait a long time: 2nd in 2009, 2014 and 2019, he finally won it in 2021, hand in hand with Italian Daniel Jung, in 23 hours 2 minutes and 21 seconds ⏱️ .

Ludovic Pommeret, king of the rock 🐏

His favorite playground is now the Hardrock 100: 160 km, nearly 10,000 m D+ and an average altitude of 3,400 m in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado. In 2024, at age 48, he won in 21 hours 33 minutes and 6 seconds, beating Kilian Jornet's record by more than 3 minutes. He doubled down in 2025, then struck even harder in 2026: 21 hours and 11 minutes 36 seconds, the best time in history, eleven days before his 51st birthday 🏆 . As tradition demands, he kissed the rock painted with a ram's head, before collapsing onto a chair. Ludovic Pommeret's record keeps growing: 3rd at the Marathon des Sables on his first crossing of the Sahara 🏜️ , then 2nd in the “L’Intégrale” of the Échappée Belle in 22 hours 17 minutes 49 seconds, across the Belledonne range. His autobiography, À contretemps (Against Time), co-written with Franck Berteau, tells the story of this journey backward through time 📖 .

In early September 2026, a grinder severed a tendon in his foot 🩹 . Unable to run the “Endurance Trail” at the Festival des Templiers, he gave his bib to Belgian trail runner Élise Steyaert and handled her aid support with Céline. Still convalescing, he nevertheless lined up on November 6, 2026 at Les 25 heures qui courent, the charity backyard ultra organized by ClemQuiCourt in support of the Rêves association. Next start line? Keep an eye on trail running's Benjamin Button, and find your own bib right now.