front runner

Or front-runner,

noun

1. a person who leads in any competition.

2. an entrant in a race who breaks to the front immediately and establishes the pace for the field.

3. an entrant in a race who performs well only when ahead of the field.

Word History and Origins

Origin of front runner¹

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40

Example Sentences

But scrutiny of his life, in books and film, highlights how unconventional he was—a point reinforced in Brendan O’Meara’s well-crafted “The Front Runner: The Life of Steve Prefontaine.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“The Front Runner” depicts Prefontaine as smug but sensitive, and it keeps a narrow focus on his immediate sports circle.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

It is one of the most competitive selections for Labour in which Owain Williams was thought by some to be a bit of a front runner.

Read more on BBC

With Kamala Harris out of the California governor’s race, other candidates are jockeying to be seen as the new front runner.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The other was the vigorous argument between abstraction and figuration as front runner of the avant-garde, then being hard-fought in the American art world.

Read more on Los Angeles Times