On Sunday, a little more than 54,000 courageous people will set off from the Avenue des Champs-Elysées for a crazy adventure of 42.195 km, with the objective of beating their personal record or simply to overcome it. A challenge to take on yourself, in any case. The desire to see the finish line can, however, push some to look for stratagems to spare themselves a little suffering, or to take pride in a time that they are in reality incapable of achieving.
A few months ago, we learned the disqualification of around 11,000 of the 30,000 participants of the Mexico City Marathon, after using vehicles and public transportation during the race. An example of massive cheating which is obviously extremely rare but which is one of the subjects to be taken into account for the organizers. A few days before the Paris marathon, its director Thomas Delpeuch details for 20 minutes the precautions taken to flush out malicious runners.
Is cheating an important element in marathon preparation?
It’s not a big topic. Most participants set themselves a big challenge when they sign up for a marathon, they do it seriously. Cheating is not in that spirit. What’s the point of finishing if you can’t look in the mirror the next day? Of course, things are put in place to make sure everyone does the course well, but it’s minor, a pretty isolated thing when it happens.
What did you think of what happened in Mexico?
I don’t really know what happened there. This is really a special case, I think, a lack of control of the course, by the organizer and the timers, a problem with the route plan or the orientation of the runners, which meant that they did not pass no matter where. This is my theory in any case, more than that of seeing a real will of the participants. For it to be this massive, it can only be that.
What is actually being implemented in Paris?
The runners are equipped with detection chips. We pass on carpets, a bit like leaving a store when the anti-theft chip on the clothes is detected by the gate. There it’s the same, the timings are done like this, every 5 km. Then it’s the federation [d’athlétisme] who is responsible for checking everything and validating the rankings at the end. It is necessary to check that the times achieved every 5 km are well recorded and credible. If this is not the case, further study is carried out. With computers, we also check the pace. If you do one section on foot and another by metro, the time becomes crazy between two sectors. Federation officials can decide to disqualify someone either for failure to detect certain points, or because of completely inconsistent times.
Are there cases of cheating every year?
In a marathon like ours, which last year represented 52,000 finishers, we are talking about 100 to 200 people. And besides, it’s often not cheating. It could be someone who more or less gave up, who passed on a sidewalk and was therefore no longer detected at the timing points, before returning to the finish to get their things, telling themselves that it would be easier to re-enter the flow to get through with everyone. So he is timed at the finish but he did not move on to the previous intermediates, and he is disqualified, but we cannot say that he really tried to cheat. Outright cheating is more than marginal.
Is there a briefing for the runners before the start?
Of course, everyone is informed. We remind you that you must make sure to pass on the treadmills every 5 km – it also makes a little beep when you pass. The disqualifications are then published by the federation, and we very rarely have complaints because people know very well, in general, that they have not completed the entire race.
How long have chips been used? The most famous examples of cheating date back to the 1980s and 1990s especially…
Since 1999. We too have had cases of cheating, more or less voluntary but some were a little more, shall we say. This forced us to make decisions, for example no longer making awards for veterans. These runners do not arrive among the first in the race, necessarily, so we were obliged to rely on timings a little further back, and by checking the times, the photos of the participants, the videos taken at the finish line , etc., we were often forced to downgrade the first fifteen to twenty. Either a man had run with a woman’s bib, or another had been seen on a metro train, that sort of thing. It made us a little disgusted. And we said to ourselves that if we rewarded gifts, we would somehow encourage some people to do that.
When did you make this decision?
About fifteen years ago. Really, we found amazing things. The first times we made videos, we saw the person go out, come back, cross the finish line in a little over 3 hours but with the stride of someone who ran in four and a half hours. Some also told us that they had made a mistake in their year of birth. We were forced to ask for identity documents, supporting documents, to carry out investigations… We said to ourselves that we had to stop.
So it calmed down today?
Yes really. We know that some people still say to themselves “come on, I’m pranking my office colleagues, I’m going to run the marathon in less than three hours”. And maybe they’ll manage to avoid getting caught. There’s no point, we’re on a challenge that everyone sets for themselves, there’s no reward other than finishing. We can’t put a lot of energy into chasing after the few people who do this to make themselves interesting on social networks. We prefer to put it at the service of those who take on this challenge, who struggle with it, who sometimes need help along the way.
Does a disqualification prevent you from registering the following year?
No at all, there are no consequences. Most of the time it’s not cheating, so there’s no reason to keep people from coming back.