In 2004, Roberto Mandje hit the jackpot by gaining entry to the Olympic 1500 for Equatorial Guinea, despite having been born in Spain and raised in the US. He got last in his heat, running 4:03. He also finished last at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in 2011 (41:54 for 12k) and a few other races.
Despite all that, his Olympic entry puts him on a pedestal. He's been in a dozen publications and quoted as a "top runner" or an "elite trail runner" (
http://running.competitor.com/2014/09/photos/photos-october-2014-competitor-cover-shoot_113857
). I'm all about letting a guy hustle to make some coin, but it feels like he's abusing his heritage and the Olympic Committee's charity for personal gain.
Additionally, he claims to have run 4:01.7 in the mile (during a recent Casey Neistat youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDLsqYXyxiw
) along with a few other impressive times that I see absolutely no record of. The fastest times I can find are a 4:00 1500 (
https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ca/roberto-caracciolo-mandje-1.html
) and a 9:04 3k Steeple (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Equatorial_Guinean_records_in_athletics
).
So is this guy just bending the truth? Or is he actively lying to advance himself too? Would love it if someone could find some documentation supporting his claimed times.