She had recorded a time of 2 hr 56 min, thereby qualifying for the Boston event. A skeptical Kathrine Switzer interviews Ruiz in this archival footage. The thing is, she didn’t actually run the race. It seems that she had started the race in Cambridge but then taken the subway to Boston.Ī couple of days later a freelance photographer telephoned The New York Times to say that she had seen Rosie Ruiz during the New York City Marathon the previous year riding the subway, and had walked with her from the station at Columbus Circle to a barrier 50 ft from the finish where she had presented herself as an injured runner, asked for access to the medical tent and limped to the line. Join us as we discuss marathon cheating, Kip Litton, bib mules, Katherine Switzer, and of course racism and misogyny. In 1980, Rosie Ruiz shocked everyone when she was the first woman to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon. She had not even worked up a sweat and her chunky thighs were not those of a top-class long-distance runner.įurther enquiries established that no one could remember having seen Rosie Ruiz during the race and there was no record of her having passed any checkpoint.Īn inquiry was launched and witnesses came forward to report that they had seen her burst out of the crowd half a mile from the tape, round about Kenmore Square, after which she was seen running the final stages without “style or form”. Her title was however stripped after she. Later, race officials claimed to have suspected all along that something was amiss. Rosie Ruiz is one of the most famous cheaters in sport history after her fake victory in the 1980 Boston Marathon. Her death, on July 8, was not reported widely until a writer for the website LetsRun saw a posting on the site’s message board linking to a funeral home obituary under Ruiz’s name.
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