It was reported that a Croydon runner had run 32.19km from St Albans to London in less than 90 minutes in 1653. I couldn't find anything to support this. However, I am very sceptical about this. I believe it's well-known that reports in various media outlets can be over-exaggerated.
Seeing this though, made me wonder just how many runners cheated their way to a gold medal. As it turns out, it has happened on numerous occassions. Some were unique while some used the same method.
Fred Lorz was the first runner to cross the finish line in the marathon at the 1904 Olympics, the first one held in the U.S.A.. It was later revealed that Lorz rode in a car for 17.7km of the journey and that he only got out to run the very end of the race.
The Olympics recap of the event says that, "Lorz would go on to claim that he had only finished as a 'joke' and had never intended to keep up the charade. The race was a chaotic one, with only 14 of the 32 participants finishing.
A 69-year-old grandfather, Anthony Gaskell, was stripped of his title after it was discovered he cut 16.09km off the London Marathon in 2010, after finishing in three hours and five minutes, The Daily Mail reported.
Gaskell said that he did not try to pass off the winning time as his own. "I have been called a cheat and disqualified from a race I never claimed to have won," he said. "I simply walked through a short cut to the end of the course where my belongings were waiting for me. I had no idea that anyone thought I'd won."
He added, "I didn't bother to check the website for the final standings because I knew I had dropped out."
An off-duty police officer in Ireland was accused of taking a tram during the Dublin marathon in 2021. The officer, who was not named publicly, was disqualified and banned from the marathon in the future. He apologised and returned his medal for finishing the race, it was reported. Ireland's police force, An Garda Síochána, also said that it was conducting its own investigation.
Frank Meza, 70, was disqualified from the Los Angeles Marathon in 2019 after officials said he was running a speed that was "impossible" for his age. He finished the marathon at 2 hours, 53 minutes and 10 seconds; which would have been a record for his age group. His nearest competitor in the 70-74 age bracket running that day was more than an hour behind.
Officials claimed that Meza's run would have been "an impossible feat during a marathon." They also said that reviewed security footage showed Meza leaving and re-entering the course at different places. Meza firmly denied the allegations, telling The Los Angeles Times that he left the course to find a restroom.
"I didn't cut the course," he told The Times days before his death later that year. "Dr. Meza's actual running time for at least one (5-kilometer) course segment would have had to have been faster than the current 70-74 age group 5km world record," the marathon organiser said in a statement.
Meza died suicide several months after the race. His daughter said that he was "devastated that people could actually believe this." He was targeted, bullied and we tried to defend him the best we could," daughter, Lorena Meza, said.
Rosie Ruiz won the women's division of the 1980 Boston Marathon in record time. Suspicions arose after she gave a TV interview shortly after the race, appearing unflustered. In the interview, Ruiz said that she had only ever run one marathon before, with the interviewer, Katherine Switzer, asking her: "So you improved from 2 hours and 56 minutes to 2 hours in 31 minutes?" The New York Times reported.
"I trained myself," Ruiz responded simply. Marathon officials later discovered that Ruiz had taken the subway for part of the race and snuck back onto the course around a mile from the finish line.
A freelance photographer who bumped into her on the subway told officials that she said she'd dropped out at the 16.09km mark with an injured ankle. Witnesses also said they saw her run onto the course near the end of the race.
Ruiz was disqualified. Speaking to the Associated Press at the time, she appeared to deny the allegation, saying: "I can truthfully and honestly say without hesitation that today has been the second saddest day of my life only to be surpassed by the day I had to leave my father in my native country 18 years ago."
Ruiz died in 2019 and never admitted to cheating.
Sergio Motsoeneng and his brother, Arnold, admitted to cheating in the 1999 Comrades marathon in South Africa, after they were accused of competing as one runner and switching places during the race. The pair were discovered after photographs showed them running with watches on different wrists and because, even though they looked similar, one of them had scars on his shin.
Their lawyer said at the time that they were desperate for the prize money, which they later said dwarfed their father's annual salary.
They said in an interview that they looked at the marathon course map to pick a place that was just before the race's halfway point, somewhere they could switch clothes and roles in a portable toilet.
A Scottish woman was disqualified from an ultra-marathon in England after data from a tracking app revealed she used a car for part of the race. Joasia Zakrzewsk finished third in the 80km-long competition but the race director later said she was "disqualified from the event having taken vehicle transport during part of the route."
Data on tracking app, Strava, alerted race officials to her suspicious speed during part of the race, it was reported. Zakrzewski made a public apology and said her actions were the result of miscommunication and were "not malicious," according to the BBC.
She said she got in a friend's car as her legs hurt and she intended to drop out but she then made a "massive error" by accepting the third-place trophy when she crossed the finish line.
Stanislaw Skupian, 38, told The Sun that he jumped a barrier and joined the 2018 London Marathon at the 19.31km mark. He said he was running without a number but shortly before the finish line spotted someone's lost running bib and put it on. "I had no thoughts of the person whose number it was," he told The Sun.
"I picked it up and held it to my chest as I crossed the line, I was in tears." A woman put the medal around my neck and told me 'well done'. I kept kissing it — it was my biggest moment ever."
The number actually belonged to runner Jake Halliday, 28, of Edinburgh, The Daily Mail reported. Halliday, who had raised £48,000 for the charity, Bloodwise, was disqualified for losing the numbered marathon bib, the outlet said.
It's absurd the lengths that the above people took to win the marathons. The good news is that most owned up to it and returned what they won. I find it a disgrace for those who deny cheating even though there were witnesses to say explicity that the runner cheated in some manner.