A social media influencer from Texas was disqualified from the 2024 New York City Marathon, and banned from any subsequent competitions, after he turned up with a camera crew on electric bikes.
The organizers, New York Road Runners (NYRR), said in a statement last week that influencer Matthew Choi, 29, violated the group’s code of conduct and competition rules, not to mention those of World Athletics, running’s international governing body.
The group said:
“One of the incidents brought to NYRR’s attention was that Choi ran with the assistance of two unauthorized people riding the course on electric bicycles, obstructing runners.”
He has been accused of injuring runners, obstructing water stops, and preventing people from getting personal bests and finishing in higher positions.
More than 55,000 people ran in the event and Choi, who describes himself on his Instagram profile as a “video producer” and “athlete”, finished the 26.2 mile (42.2 km) race with a time of 2:57:15, about 50 minutes after the overall winner, Abdi Nageeye.
Choi posted numerous videos of himself running the marathon to his Instagram page resulting in a large amount of criticism in the comments.
One user commented:
“Leave your brother and his e-bike at home next time. You caused many runners to miss aid stations!! From one runner to another… have some respect for the sport.”
Another wrote:
“If a man runs a marathon and doesn’t produce a feature film about it, did he really run a marathon?”
His behavior has been branded by many as “narcissistic,” however, Choi posted another video to his Instagram after his disqualification and subsequent banning, apologizing and accepting the verdict.
He said:
“I have no excuses, full stop. I was selfish on Sunday to have my brother and my videographer follow me around on e-bikes, and it had serious consequences.
“With the New York City Marathon being about everyone else and the community, I made it about myself, and for anyone I impacted, I’m sorry. To be clear, this was 100% on me.”
He admitted that he blocked people from getting water, affected personal bests, and endangered other runners.
Despite the apology, and promise to never use e-bikes in a marathon again, many users on Instagram branded the video virtue signaling, and suggested if Choi was truly sorry he would remove the videos that were taken during the race.
An Instagram user said:
"Weird how your apology came after the lifetime ban from NYRR and backlash. You had 3 hours to call off the bikes after impeding many other non-influencer runners that probably worked harder than you to earn their bibs. Don’t quite understand the praise for apologizing, it’s a standard expectation what [sic] should happen after pulling what you tried."
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