Internet fame Dad who took kids out of school for Boston accused of faking BQ

[iwuzwilson]

Is a USATF/IAAF banning on the table for this dude?

I'm not aware of any penalties other than a DQ for course cuttin-cheating. But I wouldn't doubt if they develop something in the next few years.

4. Any competitor who has been found by the Referee and/or Jury of Appeal to have
gained an unfair advantage by intentionally shortening the route of the race ("cutting
the course") shall be immediately disqualified from the competition. See also Rule
163.6.
RULE

6. Leaving Track, Field, or Course:
DRAFT 2015 USATF Competition Rules ● 64
(a) No competitor, after voluntarily leaving the track or course, shall be allowed to rejoin a
race either for the purpose of gaining a place or to pace or to assist another competitor.
The competitor shall be recorded as not finishing the event. A competitor attempting to
re-enter the race shall be disqualified.

[Fast Eddie]

I'm not aware of any penalties other than a DQ for course cuttin-cheating. But I wouldn't doubt if they develop something in the next few years.

Pretty sure a lifetime ban not only the Lehigh Valley Marathon, but the Boston Marathon and any races put on by the same organizers would be in order. Any races he dares run now would be under intense scrutiny.  He will have to run under an alias for a while, if not forever.  Wonder if Kip Lipton has run a race since his outing? 

[RandMart]

He will have to run under an alias for a while, if not forever.

Not necessarily. As we've seen, there are plenty of "Mike Rossi's" around; he can just say "Nope. I'm not that one"

As long as he remembers to use a town other that Rydal, PA when he registers

Conversely, any other "Mike Rossi" who registers, is gonna face some blowback, as well

I could be wrong

[Mom of Scooby]

It appears more likely than not that he did not run a 3:11.  But if you're really going to fudge your time like that, you should be more low-key about it. I wonder how many of the 20,000+ BQualifiers who ran this year's race cheated on their time?  Was he the only one?

No.. there was a woman in the news a few weeks before the marathon who was supposedly the winner of some other marathon but then they looked a little closer and determined to Rosie Ruized the race.  They looked into her a bit more and found she did the same thing a year before to BQ.. she was removed from this years Boston.. I'll try to find the link

[Mom of Scooby]

Here is the link

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2434944-kendall-schlers-st-louis-marathon-win-overturned-in-cheating-scandal

[RandMart]

Then again, if they failed to put a course marshal at a critical turn in the marathon course and provided the lead woman with two bike escorts who did not know the course, the women’s leader could take a wrong turn, go three miles off course, dutifully escorted by the two bikers who did not know how to get back to the correct course, blather around for 30 minutes (!), get a ride from police officers, first back to 18 miles and then up to 22-1/2, and miraculously, still win the women’s division in 3:06.59

http://fittish.deadspin.com/oops-competitor-group-did-it-again-1698885485

according to USATF rules, Bretscher should have been disqualified because she did not run three miles of the course, between 18-1/2 and 22-1/2, where the second police officer dropped her back on the course. But realizing the wrong turn and resultant squad car hopping was their mistake, organizers not only awarded Bretscher the $500 first prize, they offered to pay her entry, travel and lodging to the future marathon of her choosing, Rock ‘n’ Roll product or not.

Competitor Group’s director of public relations, Dan Cruz, tweeted that the incident was “pretty embarrassing for us.”

3:09 is a BQ; not sure if they'll recognize it

[iwuzwilson]

Here is the link

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2434944-kendall-schlers-st-louis-marathon-win-overturned-in-cheating-scandal

I interrupt this thread to say that I knew the author of an article linked in the Bleacherreport article. Small world. Other than that my lips are sealed.

[RandMart]

I interrupt this thread to say that I knew the author of an article linked in the Bleacherreport article. Small world. Other than that my lips are sealed.

Are folks who work at Bleacherreport or Deadspin "authors?"

For the most part, they are just very good at finding, cutting, pasting & reformatting

I could be wrong

[iwuzwilson]

Are folks who work at Bleacherreport or Deadspin "authors?"

For the most part, they are just very good at finding, cutting, pasting & reformatting

I could be wrong

I'm referring to a source article that was linked in the Bleacherreport that Mom of Scooby posted.

[Eco Ellen]

Here is the link

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2434944-kendall-schlers-st-louis-marathon-win-overturned-in-cheating-scandal

I don't understand this.  Did this person have a response at all?  Or just..did she just get caught cheating?

I don't get cheating.  I just don't understand it.

[iwuzwilson]

I don't understand this.  Did this person have a response at all?  Or just..did she just get caught cheating?

I don't get cheating.  I just don't understand it.

I didn't follow that case as closely but read a short blurb after she was outed.
According to a Chicago Times Article, in 2012 there were 250 cheaters at the Chicago Marathon, so that's 0.5%.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-10-08/sports/ct-spt-1008-marathon-cheaters--20101007_1_chicago-marathon-previous-marathons-carey-pinkowski

I don't get it either, other than that they seem to be newbs and wannabes not willing to put in the effort. This Mike Rossi has only been running for a year and a half and appears to have legitimate 1:40 half and low 3:40 for the full and that's off of a supposed 15 miles a week. Imagine what he'd do at 35-45 miles a week in a year or two? He'd probably get his qualifier.

[Rochey]

Speaking of cheats....does anyone know if Liza Hunter-Galvan actually received the $10,000 from BAA? 

[iwuzwilson]

Speaking of cheats....does anyone know if Liza Hunter-Galvan actually received the $10,000 from BAA? 

Here's the latest, contradictory at best.
http://texasrunningpost.com/news/boston-marathon-statement-regarding-liza-hunter-galvan-confusing-conflicting/

In a nutshell, she gets the money (pending undisclosed checks) because she did her time. Meanwhile, just last winter BAA issued statement saying that drug cheats would not be allowed to compete for prize money in the open division.

[Rochey]

Yeah I get that feed on my page and read that. There wasn't anything more printed in the local paper.

[iwuzwilson]

Yeah I get that feed on my page and read that. There wasn't anything more printed in the local paper.

You'd think the BAA would try to be consistent.

Any updates on the other runner from your area that improved by 30 or 40 minutes in a short time?

[Rochey]

No she's the biggest attention whore I have ever seen. I have had to hide her from my newsfeed. All of my running friends, except the ones who train with her, think the exact same thing I think.

[iwuzwilson]

Apparently the verdict is in (from Letsrun):

And the Friday afternoon news dump comes out:

http://www.letsrun.com/news/20...ook-place/

No DQ "unless additional conclusive information" comes out.

In our minds, the statement by the marathon organizers is logically flawed. Imagine if the police in this country weren't allow to charge people with burglary simply because it wasn't reported while it was happening - crime would be even more of a problem than it already is.

When one considers that it's physiologically improbable to say the least (some would say impossible) that Mr. Rossi was even capable of running 3:11:45, given his personal bests at other distances which all equate to a marathon over 3:30, with the fact that he wasn't seen in a single photo on the course, the burden of proof should have shifted to Mr. Rossi to provide some shred of evidence that he ran the race (GPS data, photos, statements from fellow competitors, spectators or family members, etc.) or was at least physically capable of something close to a 3:11:45 (training logs, GPS data, statements from training partners), particularly when one considers that his own contemporaneous statements contradicted his initial explanation that his other PRs were much slower simply because he was injured or not going all out in many of his shorter races.

The integrity of our beloved sport is at stake. We've spent much of the last few weeks researching and writing our own story on Mr. Rossi that lays out the evidence against Mr. Rossi. We were going to publish the story tonight which was going to ask for a DQ.

We were waiting to put it out as we wanted to give Lehigh Valley and Mr. Rossi a chance to comment. Our email to Mr. Rossi was met with a reply by a lawyer who has been "retained to investigate and prosecute any and all claims of defamation arising from false allegations of competition cheating made against my client." And then we got the statement from Lehigh Valley.

We still think our story is well researched and well written. We will publish the story early next week as we don't want it to get lost as a Friday afternoon news dump.. In our minds, the evidence is indeed conclusive that Mike Rossi - the viral Boston Marathon dad - is a marathon cheat and should have not been on starting line in Boston and we hope the organizers consider it as "additional conclusive information."

Read more: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6479539&page=196#ixzz3bZIIuUiG

The fact that he didn't show up in thousands of pictures should be proof enough.

[RandMart]

Yeah, but neither did the other two gunmen in Dallas [unless you count The Umbrella Man, and Babushka Lady]

[iwuzwilson]

The thread is dead. Long live the Mike Rossi thread!

7,790 posts in about 6 weeks, the Mike Rossi thread had run its full course on Letsrun. The thing took on a life of its own, but devolved into absurdity and pettiness this month. Sad though, the guy got away with bullying a school principal and with cheating his way into Boston.

[RandMart]

He only got away with in in this World, Raj. Remember, there's a Special Circle of Hell for people like him

In my mind this is how they're laid down

    First Circle: People Who Fudge Their Training Logs
    Second Circle: Bike Thieves
    Third Circle: Bandits, People Who Fake Bibs, and Those Who Take TWO Finishers Medals
    Fourth Circle: Dopers and Other Assorted Cheats
    Fifth Circle: Gamblers and Sportswriters
    Sixth Circle: Sports Agents
    Seventh Circle: Team Owners
    Eighth Circle: League Commissioners
    Ninth Circle: Al Davis ... Alone for now, but saving spaces for Jerry Jones, Donald Sterling, Dan Snyder and Mr. Ed Snider, at least