Runners often get a bad rap, crowding footpaths on Saturday mornings, rubbing the rest of us up the wrong way with their boundless energy and brightly-colored shorts. Often the negative press is not entirely warranted. But sometimes it is.
Matt Choi, a running influencer who ran last Sunday’s New York City Marathon with a time of 2 hours 57 minuutes and 15 seconds, has recently come under fire for bringing along two unauthorized e-bike riders to film his race, at the same time endangering and obstructing other athletes trying to run the race for themselves (it’s not the first time he’s done it either).
Now Choi’s impressive time has been disqualified from the event and the influencer has been slapped with a lifelong ban. “After a review and due to violations of World Athletics rules, and New York Road Runners’ Code of Conduct and Rules of Competition, NYRR has disqualified Matt Choi from the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon and removed him from the results. He has been banned from any future NYRR races,” said the statement released November 4th, 2024, via Sarah Lorge Butler of Runners World. One of his sponsors, the training app Runna, also cut ties with Choi.
Choi, who has a sizable following on social media where he posts videos running shirtless and wearing a backward baseball cap, has also faced backlash online. “The disrespect for other runners is disgusting. Get your “film crew” off the course)” wrote one disgruntled runner under a video Choi posted of himself running the race. “No respect for other people’s safety or their race…only cares about getting those shots and views SMH…” commented another.
“As a runner, seeing him was amazing. Gave me extra motivation to pass him and make sure I never had to see him and his dumb crew for the rest of the race,” another person commented under a clip of Choi running flanked by Citi Bikes posted on the r/RunNYC subreddit.
Choi later posted an apology video to Instagram in response to the ban. “I fucked up,” Choi said. “I have no excuses. Full stop. I was selfish on Sunday… and it had serious consequences. It endangered other runners, we impacted people going for PBs, we blocked people from getting water… I made it about myself and for anyone I impacted, I’m sorry.” Choi has the opportunity to appeal the ban, but explains that he has chosen not to. “I made my bed, so I’m gonna lay in it.”
This year’s marathon had more than 55,000 participants running through the five boroughs, with more than 2 million spectators and 10,000 volunteers cheering them on. “I think the obvious solution here is to just create a new division or maybe just a new race for influencers only,” one person suggested under Choi’s video. “As many selfie sticks and E bikes as possible with all of them running together yelling at their screens the whole way.”
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