Rosie Ruiz Boston Marathon Scandal: Faking a Win

On April twenty first, nineteen eighty, the Boston Marathon, one of the most prestigious and long running races in world history, with thousands of runners running men and women, an unknown name suddenly burst onto the scene named Rosie Ruiz, crossing the finish line with a stunning time of two hours, thirty one minutes and fifty six seconds, claiming a shocking victory as the fastest time in Boston Marathon history. But she wasn't even d wedding, and no one remembers her at the checkpoints. She just appeared towards the end. Join us today as we unravel one of the most audacious sports schedules ever, a story of deception in the lynks that one woman went to to steal victory that wasn't hers in at the giant marathon. Heist that shocked the running world and changed the way we watched the race today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge as we dive into the Rosie Ruiz Boston Marathon. So who was Rosie Ruiz? She was born in nineteen fifty three in Havana, Cuba, and at the age of eight, she immigrated to the United States with her family, fleeing the castro regime, which many Cubans fled during that time, and the move was a disruptive She got separated from her family, and she was raised by extended family in Hollywood, Florida during her formative years, which left her feeling unstable and searching for belonging. She would go on to graduate high school then attend Wayne State College in Nebraska, where she earned a degree in music in nineteen seventy seven. She played piano and described running as her escape when she was a youth in Florida, as a way to cope with isolation and challenges she experienced during her immigration. In the late nineteen seventies, she relocated to New York City working as an administrative's assistant at a metals trades firm. Collie's described her as eager to fit in and be part of the office in crowd and running was the ticket to acceptance. So she made her debut marathon in the nineteen seventy nine New York Marathon. Officially, she finished eleventh among women with a time of two hours fifty six minutes and twenty nine seconds. That's impressive. It's great for her first time runner, and fast enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon. However, a freelance photographer named Susan Morrow lorded meeting Rosie on the subway during the race. Rosie claimed that she was an injured runner and was being escorted to the finish area, where volunteers mistakenly recorded her as having completed the marathon. This shortcut was uncovered after she ran the Boston Marathon, which happened on April twenty first, nineteen eighty in Boston, Massachusetts. There was four hundred and forty eight women competing that day. It was a warm day, which made it challenging conditions for runners, but it didn't seem to bother Rosie. She finished with a time of two hours, thirty one minutes and fifty six seconds, beating her New York Marathon time by over twenty minutes, setting a new course record for women. But many of the spectators don't remember seeing her, and she didn't look exhausted, and she looked barely sweaty or was still styled. It's all unusual for a marathon runner, but once you win, everything kind of just goes without stopping, so the celebration starts and everything one starts cheering. That doesn't mean people don't start to question things, because when they would interview her, Rosie wouldn't be able to answer basic questions like what's an interval? And as they tried to look for pictures of her running throughout the race, they couldn't find them. They looked at her previous New York City marathon time and saw that she had best at it by over twenty five minutes, which was a huge jump for just a few months apart, and she had no prior reputation as a top level marathoner. Come out of the blue instead of record. That doesn't just happen. And at the time it was the eighties, so we didn't have the chips that we have now for GPS timing and video tracking. The race was visual observation and you could cheat if it just worked out the right way. But an investigation was launched with doubts due to Rosie's finish, and eight days later they decided to vacate her win and declare Jacqueline Garou the rightful winner. They started the investigation because no one saw Rosie throughout the course until the last mile. Witnesses reported seeing her suddenly emerge from the crowd near the finish line, looking fresh and uninjured, despite running twenty six miles. Fellow runners, including the true leader, Jacqueline Guerrou, were shocked and confused because she hadn't seen anyone pass her and there was no photo of her except for the finish line. And then there was eyewitnesses as well that came out saying they saw Rosie jump into the race near the final mile, confirming that she had not run the full course. Officials and spotters at each checkpoint throughout the race didn't see her among the leading women for the first eighteen miles. There was an end, and there was no video or photos of Rosie on the course until near the finish, so they decided to start investigating, and their investigation actually led them to realize Rosie cheated in the New York Marathon as well, taking the subway for part of the race. Yet her official time of two hours, fifty six minutes and nineteen seconds was accepted to allow her to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Now, these marathons are professional marathons. To qualify for them or pay a hefty price to get exemption to be able to join the race. So it's not like your everyday marathon that might be a local marathon where anyone can just sign up and run with it. So the Boston Athletic Association, who puts on the Boston Marathon, conducted a thorough investigation, interviewing witnesses, reviewing report and comparing Rosie's story to the evidence. Then, on April twenty ninth, nineteen eighty, just eight days after the race, Rosie Ruiz was officially stripped of her Boston Marathon title and banned from future racists, and they declared Jacqueline Guerreau as the rightful winner of the Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, thirty four minutes and twenty eight seconds, which was the fastest recorded time for a woman at the time. Now, Rosie had never admitted guilt, insisting that she had ran the entire race, and refused to return her winner's medal. The scan will be came almost an infamous cheating case in sports history, and it led to major changes in race monitoring, including timing mat and stricter qualifications standards. Rosie eventually faded away from the public, but later faced even more legal troubles. Two years later, she was arrested for embezzling sixty thousand dollars from a real estate company where she had worked, serving just one week in jail and receiving five years of probation. She later moved to Florida, where she was arrested again in nineteen eighty three, and she continued to face legal issues throughout her life, and her reputation was always ruined, though she never admitted guilt and died of cancer at the age of sixty six in twenty nineteen. But she wasn't the only one to cheat in a marathon, And was this the worst form of cheating that a marathon has had, because there's been lots of others, And even though this happened in nineteen eighty there have been even more since that has happened. Now, there's been different ways of cheating. Rosie's the one where you jump in a car, or you take the take a train or something to the end so you don't have to run the entire race. But there's also something called bib mules. Now some runners stand in as bib mules and these take advance of qualifying time and four prestigious races like the Boston and use those BIB running times so they can run in these larger marathons. Some other notable ones In nineteen ninety Comrader Marathon in South Africa, two brothers swapped places mid race, running as one competitor and split the grueling Ultra Marathon, and they were caught when the photos revealed differences in their appearance and accessories, later losing that race. Now, an ultra marathon is one that's more than the twenty six miles, so I would understand that as well. In twenty eleven that the Kindler Marathon in England, Rob Sloan finished third, but allegedly took buses for five miles of the course and witnesses saw him entering and exiting the bus before rejoining the race. Dane Patterson was a contestant on The Biggest Loser, actually hissed to ride with a TV crew for three miles at the Arizona Marathon, later claiming he would make up the miles afterwards, and it still happens recently at the twenty twenty three Manchester Ultra, which is an ultra marathon Josia Zapwitsky was disqualified for using a car during the race, later claiming she was unwell and did not intend to cheat, but her results were deemed invalid. Now there's even more that have happened in marathon races. As it's such a long race, it's one of the more easy ones to cheat. You can't cheat the one hundred meter race because it's so short, but a marathon encompasses multiple towns sometimes and it's a hard thing to keep track of, especially back in the day without the GPS trackers that we have now. Back then you really had to rely on volunteers and checkpoints to really have a chance to do it, and it was easy to miss. Rosie had her day for about a week, but she was always known as the one who cheated the Boston Marathon and gave us all the idea of what we would do to cheat a marathon. I want to thank you for listening to Today's Daily Sports History. If you'd like this, please make sure you follow and subscribe wherever you're at. That's the best way to help us out and so you never miss another episode. Come back to me and we'll see you tomorrow for more daily sports history,