With the Boston Marathon on Monday, the legend of Rosie Ruiz comes up as one of the most infamous sports cheats. Races have since added controls, but cheaters still look for ways around the controls.
For those of you not familiar with the history of the Boston Marathon, Rosie Ruiz was declared the winner of the 1980 Boston Marathon with a time of 2:31:56. At that time, it was one of the fastest female marathon runs. Currently, the female elite runners leave before the men. In 1980, women were back in the pack and harder to track.
Now, racers have a timing chip that notes when the athlete passes certain points in the course. It makes it harder to cheat because you need to figure a way to get the chip to each of those points.
According to a recent article in the New York Times on an ironman athlete, the athlete tried to circumvent the system by claiming that her timing chip fell off. The general rule for most races is that if you don’t finish with your timing chip, you don’t get a finishing time. She plead for reinstatement, and had her time reinstated. That also made her the winner of her division.
In looking at running portion of the race course, it seems clear that the course failed in having enough timing checkpoints. The course consisted of two laps, with several points that a cheater could cut across the route.
The other element helping to catch cheaters is the prevalence of spectators that can provide meaningful race data. We all have mini-computers in our pockets with phones that accurately capture time and location. Race officials were able to identify the time and place of the athlete on certain parts of the course that did not match her claimed performance based on spectator images.
Officials should not have had to rely on extrinsic data. There should have been more timing mats. Race officials should not have allowed reinstatement of her time. They should particularly not allowed reinstatement when it gave the athlete a win in her division.
Controls are in place to prevent cheating, allowing circumvention of the controls is a compliance failure by the race officials. It takes well-deserved recognition from the athletes who followed the rules.
Sources:
- Swim. Bike. Cheat? by Sarah Lyall in the New York Times
- Suspended Squamish triathlete insists she didn’t cheat by Jose Colorado in the Vancouver Sun
- Where are they now: Rosie Ruiz and the man who uncovered her ruse