Rosie Ruiz — The Most Famous Marathon Cheat In History — Has Died At Age 66
By Robert Johnson
August 5, 2019
The most famous marathon cheat of all has died.
Rosie Ruiz, who for eight days was credited as the 1980 Boston Marathon champion even though she jumped on to the course and only ran roughly the last half mile of the race, died on July 8 in Florida after a 10+ year battle with cancer, according to an obituary on dignitymemorial.com. She was 66 years old.
Suspicions about the legitimacy of Ruiz’s run started before she crossed the finish line. She hadn’t been spotted at any of the intermediate checkpoints, she wasn’t covered in sweat, and take a look at how she looked as she ran over the line in the video below. Does this look like a 2:31:56 marathoner to you?
Post-race, men’s champion Bill Rodgers realized Ruiz didn’t know basic things like her splits while she was on the awards stand with him.
After Ruiz told journalist Kathrine Switzer, who in 1967 was the first official women’s entrant to run Boston, in a television interview that Boston was her second race ever and that she’d improved from 2:56 in New York to 2:31, a skeptical Switzer asked Ruiz, “Have you been doing a lot of heavy intervals?”
Ruiz’s response was classic, “Someone else asked me that. I’m not sure what intervals are. What are they?”
Switzer concluded her interview by saying, “Rosie Ruiz. The mystery women winner. We missed her at all our checkpoints.”
