Seems to match up with her appearance and bio....without mention of the running part.....for good reason.
Editor's note: A great find by the OP. Here is our article on her passing:
https://www.letsrun.com/news/2019/08/rosie-ruiz-the-most-famous-marathon-cheat-in-history-has-died-at-age-66/Did somebody shame her?
Good catch. It sure matches her bio. Sounds like she took her secret to her grave. Now we will never know.
Wikipedia says yes, this is her: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_Ruiz
Hounddogharrier wrote:
Good catch. It sure matches her bio. Sounds like she took her secret to her grave. Now we will never know.
Never know? You mean you think there may have been a chance she did actually run the full 26.2?
GOAT race cheat
Yeah...they hadn't update that yesterday. A friend had posted the obit on Facebook. Running Times contacted me and I said I couldn't verify it 100%, they should check, but it sure sounds like her. Boston media did not publish a thing. It was a HUGE deal when this happened!
It's Derek's fault.
Yeah....if you watch the documentary footage and read the articles, a freelance photographer road with her on the subway to the NYC Marathon finish and then she wandered into the medical tent area at the right time and somehow walked away with a 2:56 7th place finish! This should have been a movie! She must've known ENOUGH for her to get these times locked up...had she waited a minute or two, she might've seemed more legit at Boston! It's incredible she timed her appearances at the finish so accurately in a day and age where it was much, much harder!
TakeTheT wrote:
Yeah....if you watch the documentary footage and read the articles, a freelance photographer road with her on the subway to the NYC Marathon finish and then she wandered into the medical tent area at the right time and somehow walked away with a 2:56 7th place finish! This should have been a movie! She must've known ENOUGH for her to get these times locked up...had she waited a minute or two, she might've seemed more legit at Boston! It's incredible she timed her appearances at the finish so accurately in a day and age where it was much, much harder!
People could just look at her body and know that she had cheated. I had the impression at the time that her intention was to finish in a more believable position and that she effed up and jumped on the course too early.
Absolutely...she is not "lean" or even skinny like a marathon. And the iron on M.T.I. shirt may have been a giveaway....Pretty embarrassing moment in Boston Marathon history. The video clearly shows her poor running form. Pretty incredible she held the title for almost a week! MarathonInvestigation.com would have broken the case within minutes!
SDSU Aztec wrote:
TakeTheT wrote:
Yeah....if you watch the documentary footage and read the articles, a freelance photographer road with her on the subway to the NYC Marathon finish and then she wandered into the medical tent area at the right time and somehow walked away with a 2:56 7th place finish! This should have been a movie! She must've known ENOUGH for her to get these times locked up...had she waited a minute or two, she might've seemed more legit at Boston! It's incredible she timed her appearances at the finish so accurately in a day and age where it was much, much harder!
People could just look at her body and know that she had cheated. I had the impression at the time that her intention was to finish in a more believable position and that she effed up and jumped on the course too early.
That was my take as well. Evidently "finishing" so well at the NY Marathon really impressed her boss who offered her time off with pay and maybe (been a long time since I read the story) expenses to run at Boston. Speculation was that she felt the need to place well there to impress her boss more and justify the support he gave her. So she was hoping to repeat what she'd done at New York and "finish" fairly high and just miscalculated. I also recall that a few years later her name was in the news again for something fraud like, maybe passing bad checks.
She was kind of cute when she won Boston. How come they don't mention it?
Embezzling her workplace and cocaine dealing.....
mikerossiposer wrote:
GOAT race cheat
NOT the GOAT, or she wouldn't have been found out so quick. Definitely the OG though (though in the 1906 Olympic marathon some competitors tried to cheat by hitchhiking).
I was there on Commonwealth Ave as a spectator, and the first woman was so obviously Jacqueline Gareau from Canada. The very supportive crowd went wild for her. Did she ever get a bum deal!
HRE wrote:
I also recall that a few years later her name was in the news again for something fraud like, maybe passing bad checks.
I seem to remember that she ripped off the very same boss who had supported her before and after the Boston Marathon fiasco.
The photo from the obituary is definitely THE Rosie Ruiz.
This story, from when Gareau was brought back and honored a few years later, mentions "Rosie Vivas" towards the end:
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/boston-marathon-to-give-gareau-time-in-spotlight/. Same as the obituary.
Gareau talks about feeling sad for Rosie, more than for herself. Well, think about it. Rosie was obviously damaged goods, and her responses in the NYC Marathon and Boston Marathon, and forever afterwards, show deep trouble. What she did was ridiculously wrong, but there's still room for compassion.
mikerossiposer wrote:
GOAT race cheat
I would argue Cierpinski...
Luv2Run wrote:
mikerossiposer wrote:
GOAT race cheat
I would argue Cierpinski...
I would argue Shorter, projection is the tell tell sign i.e. Paula, and Carl Lewis.
The answer to your question is no, she did not die this week.
Look like she died a month ago.