Audrey Werro (born 27 March 2004) is a Swiss track and field athlete. She is the reigning European champion for the 800 metres, having won the gold medal at the 2026 European Championships in Birmingham. That year, Werro won the World Ultimate Championship during an unbeaten outdoor season and ran the third fastest 800 m time in history with 1:53.70 in Zurich, and also ran the fifth fastest time for the distance on a short track when winning the silver medal in the 800 m at the 2026 World Indoor Championships in Toruń.
At junior levels, she won the gold medal at the 2025 European U23 Championships, the silver medal at the 2022 World Under-20 Championships, and gold medals at the 2021 and 2023 European U20 Championships.
She is a nine-time gold medalist over 800 m at the Swiss Championships (four outdoor and five indoor). She holds national records at senior level as well as the U18 and U20 levels.
Early life Audrey Werro was born on 27 March 2004 to a Swiss father, Claude, and an Ivorian mother, Philomène. She has a sister and two brothers.Audrey Werro x Gruyère AOP She is from Fribourg, in west Switzerland, and studied at nearby Gambach College.
Werro began athletics at the age of nine. She joined Club Athlétique Belfaux, and was coached by Christiane Berset Nuoffer, who continued as her coach into her professional career.
Career 2021 In June 2021, at age 17, Werro was runner-up in the 800 metres at the Swiss Championships, running 2:02.88 to finish behind champion Lore Hoffmann. She set new national U18 records over the 400 and 800 metres that year. In July, she won the gold medal in the 800 m at the European Under-20 Championships held in Tallinn, Estonia, competing against athletes up to two years her senior.
2022 In February 2022, Werro broke the Swiss U23 indoor 400 m record by 0.84 s with a time of 53.03 seconds in Magglingen. She next became the national indoor champion over the 800 m, running 2:04.95 also in Magglingen. In June, she broke the Swiss U20 and U23 records in the outdoor event, previously held by Delia Sclabas (2:01.29), with a time of 2:00:28 in Geneva. The same month, Werro also won the Swiss 800 m outdoor title, clocking 2:02.72 in Zürich.
In August, she won the silver medal in the event at the World U20 Championships held in Cali, Colombia with an U23 national record of 1:59.53, behind Roisin Willis for whom it was also the first time she ran sub-two minutes in an 800 m race. The same month, Werro made her debut in the senior championships at the European Championships in Munich, where she was eliminated in the heats in 2:06.34. In December, she was nominated for Radio SRF Best Talent Sport award.
2023
In early February, aged 18 years, Werro ran a Swiss U23 indoor 800 m record of 2:00.57 in Val-de-Reuil, just 0.19 s off Selina Rutz-Büchel's national senior record. This came six days after Werro had lowered Rutz-Büchel's Swiss indoor 600 m record to 1:26.14. In March, at the European Indoor Championships, held in Istanbul, she finished fifth in the 800 m final in a time of 2:00.91, 0.06 s away from bronze.
In July, Werro won her second national title in the outdoor 800 m with a time of 2:01.70 at the Swiss Championships in Bellinzona. She was also the indoor champion over the 800 m for the second year in a row. The following month, she attended the European U20 Championships, held in Jerusalem, and won the gold medal in the 800 m for the second time since 2021.
In August, Werro set a new 800 metres personal best at the Diamond League meeting in Zürich, running 1:59.50. She competed at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August 2023 finishing 6th in her heat. Shortly after the World Athletics Championships, Werro broke her own national U20 record by running 1:58.13 at the Galà dei Castelli in Bellinzona.
2024 She competed in the 800 metres at the World Indoor Championships. She won her qualifying heat in a time of 2:01.83. In the semi-final she ran a new indoor personal best time of 2:00.16.
She competed in the 800 metres at the Summer Olympics in Paris in August, being eliminated in the repechage round. She set a new Swiss national record time of 1:57.76 for the 800 metres in Bellinzona in September.
2025 She was the fastest qualifier for the 800 metres final at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. However, in the final she clashed with eventual medalist Anita Horvat and fell to the floor with the race carrying on ahead of her. She reached the final of the 800 metres at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing. In the final, she ran a personal best and Swiss national indoor record of 1:59.81 to finish in fourth place, 0.01 seconds behind bronze medal winner Patricia Silva of Portugal.
In May, she ran a new 800 metres national record of 1:57.25 at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Bydgoszcz. She placed fourth in the 800 metres in June in Stockholm at the BAUHAUS-galan event, part of the Diamond League. She ran a 2:34.88 personal best over 1000 metres in Monaco at the Herculis. She ran a championship record of 1:57.42 to win the gold medal in the 800 metres at the European U23 Championships in Bergen, Norway. The following month, she finished runner-up to Keely Hodgkinson over 800 m in 1:57.34 at the Athletissima event in Lausanne and lowered her personal best to 1:56.29 in winning the Swiss Championships. She ran an 800 m personal best 1:55.91 to win the Diamond League Final in Zurich ahead of Georgia Hunter Bell on 28 August.
In September, she was a finalist in the women's 800 metres at the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, placing sixth in a time of 1:56.17.
In October, she was crowned European Rising Star of the Year.
2026 Werro opened her 2026 indoor season at the Meeting de l’Eure in Val-de-Reuil, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting on 1 February, winning over 800 m in 1:57.49, taking more than two seconds off her own national indoor record. A few days later, she moved to eighth on the world all-time list with 1:57.27 in Belgrade. On 19 February, she was runner up in Liévin, as Keely Hodgkinson set a new indoor 800 m world record. Werro won the Swiss Indoor Championships over 800 metres on 1 March 2026, running 1:57.98 in the final. Competing in the 800 metres at the World Indoor Championships in Toruń, Poland, in March, Werro won her semi-final in 1:59.27, before winning the silver medal behind Hodgkinson in the final in 1:56.64, moving to fifth on the world all-time indoor list.
On 31 May, she ran a meeting record of 1:56.56 to win the 800 metres at the Diamond League in Rabat. On 7 June, at the Stockholm Diamond League, Werro defeated Keely Hodgkinson in the 800 metres in a new Swiss record of 1:53.98. This was the third fastest time in history, and the fastest for 43 years. On 16 June, Werro won ahead of Femke Broeders-Bol in 1:54.45 at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava. On 28 June, at the Paris Diamond League, Werro improved her national record in the 800 metres to 1:53.80.
Competing at the European Championships in Birmingham, England, on 13 August, Werro fell while leading in the final 120 metres of her semi-final. Having returned to her feet and slowing finishing the race, she was reinstated on appeal into the final having been adjudged to have fallen following inadvertent contact on her foot by the hand of French woman Anaïs Bourgoin running behind her. She then won the final the following day in a championship record of 1:54.81, finishing ahead of Hodgkinson and Broeders-Bol who had qualified from the other semi-final, with Werro controlling the pace for much of the final before pulling away in the final 100 metres. On 21 August, she set a new meeting record at the Athletissima in Lausanne, winning in 1:55.33 to finish ahead of Broeders-Bol and Saida Tsehaye. On 27 August, she ran a new Diamond League record and personal best of 1:53.70 to win the 2026 Weltklasse Zürich. At the 2026 Diamond League Final in Brussels on 5 September, Werro broke Pamela Jelimo's 18-year-old meeting record to claim the 800 metres title in a narrow win over Broeders-Bol, winning by 0.06 seconds in 1:54.75. On 12 September, she won the 800 metres in the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest in 1:55.88 to complete an unbeaten outdoor season.
For her efforts in 2026, Werro was named a finalist for European Athlete of the Year and nominated for World Athlete of the Year.
Achievements Information from her World Athletics profile unless otherwise noted.
Personal bests TypeDistanceTime (s)VenueDateNotesIndoor400 metres 53.03Magglingen, Switzerland12 February 2022600 metres 1:26.14Magglingen, Switzerland29 January 2023800 metres 1:56.64Toruń, Poland22 March 2026Outdoor400 metres50.80Zurich, Switzerland25 July 2026600 metres1:22.85Biel, Switzerland23 June 2026 800 metres1:53.70Zurich, Switzerland27 August 20261000 metres2:34.88Fontvieille, Monaco11 July 2025
International competitions 2021European U20 ChampionshipsTallinn, Estonia1st800 m2:03.122022World U20 ChampionshipsCali, Colombia2nd800 m1:59.53European ChampionshipsMunich, Germany28th (h)800 m2:06.342023European Indoor ChampionshipsIstanbul, Turkey5th800 m 2:00.91European Team Championships First DivisionChorzów, Poland1st800 m1:59:95European U20 ChampionshipsJerusalem, Israel1st800 m2:03.38World ChampionshipsBudapest, Hungary34th (h)800 m2:01.032024World Indoor ChampionshipsGlasgow, United Kingdom10th (sf)800 m2:00.16Olympic GamesParis, France11th (rep)800 m2:00.622025European Indoor ChampionshipsApeldoorn, Netherlands6th800 m2:27.37World Indoor ChampionshipsNanjing, China4th800 m1:59.81European U23 ChampionshipsBergen, Norway1st800 m1:57.427th4 × 400 m relay3:31.38World ChampionshipsTokyo, Japan6th800 m1:56.172026World Indoor ChampionshipsToruń, Poland2nd800 m1:56.64European ChampionshipsBirmingham, United Kingdom1st800 m1:54.81World Ultimate ChampionshipBudapest, Hungary1st800 m1:55.88
National championships 2018Swiss U16 ChampionshipsFrauenfeld1st600 m1:35.072019Swiss U16 ChampionshipsDüdingen1st600 m1:31.592020Swiss U18 ChampionshipsLausanne1st800 m2:09.062021Swiss Indoor ChampionshipsMagglingen5th800 m2:07.95Swiss ChampionshipsLangenthal2nd800 m2:02.88Swiss U18 ChampionshipsWinterthur3rd200 m24.422022Swiss Indoor ChampionshipsMagglingen1st800 m2:04.95Swiss ChampionshipsZürich1st800 m2:02.88Swiss U20 ChampionshipsGeneva6th200 m24.202023Swiss Indoor ChampionshipsSt. Gallen1st800 m2:02.87Swiss ChampionshipsBellinzona1st800 m2:01.70Swiss U20 ChampionshipsLausanne1st400 m52.692024Swiss Indoor ChampionshipsSt. Gallen1st800 m2:01.76Swiss ChampionshipsWinterthur2nd800 m1:58.67Swiss U23 ChampionshipsLangenthal1st400 m52.732025Swiss Indoor ChampionshipsSt. Gallen1st800 m2:01.13Swiss ChampionshipsFrauenfeld1st800 m1:56.29NR2026Swiss Indoor ChampionshipsSt. Gallen1st800 m1:57.98Swiss ChampionshipsZürich1st (heats)1400 m50.801st800 m1:57.21 1Did not start in the final.
References
External links
Official website