EXCLUSIVE: Shalane Flanagan Using Body Doubles for 6-Marathons-in-6-Weeks Feat
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iStockphoto.com, Depositphotos.com
American marathoner Shalane Flanagan, who retired from professional competition in 2019, is employing lookalikes to pull off her much-publicized quest to run all six of the World Marathon Major races in a six-week period, Dumb Runner has learned—a brazen attempt at fraud that threatens to destroy the Olympic medalist’s squeaky-clean image.
Flanagan, 40, has said she’s trying to run all six marathons—Berlin, London, Chicago, Boston, Tokyo and New York City—in under three hours. She decided on the audacious goal after three of those six events were pushed to the fall from their usual spring dates due to the coronavirus pandemic, making such a feat possible.
So far, she claims to have run the Berlin Marathon (September 26) in 2 hours 38 minutes, London (October 3) in 2:35:04, Chicago (October 10) in 2:46:39, and Boston, today, in 2:40:34—times that an anonymous whistleblower is calling “bogus.”
“I say ‘bogus’ because Shalane didn’t actually do the running in any of them,” the source said in an encrypted text exchange. “She’s using doppelgängers to stand in for her.”
“And that is not a word I use lightly,” the source said, apparently referring to the word doppelgänger.
The source described themselves as “close to the situation” but would not elaborate further. They supplied digital photos of each of the alleged body doubles, including one in which a runner identified as Shalane appears to be a male with heavy facial stubble and a blonde wig. They also said that the real Shalane Flanagan had been spotted in and around Portland, Oregon, multiple times over the past week, including at a Starbucks, where she ordered under the name “Kara.”
A woman matching Flanagan’s description, “except in a dark wig and sunglasses,” was also seen Sunday in a local running store, where employees were watching live coverage of the Chicago Marathon on the store’s widescreen television.
A staffer said the woman didn’t buy anything, but made several strange comments as she pointed at the TV, such as, “Hey, isn’t that Shalane Flanagan? Yeah, I’m positive that’s her. Definitely Shalane Flanagan there, in Chicago, running that marathon.”
“Anyway,” the woman added, on her way out, “my name is Kara, and I’ll catch you later.”
The anonymous source urged sports journalists covering the World Marathon Majors to “do better,” saying that Flanagan’s subterfuge is “obvious to anyone paying attention.”
“Think about it,” they said. “[Flanagan] claims to be running all of these races… yet there are these eyewitness sightings in Portland?”
“I admit, the body doubles she chose are very, very good,” they added. “But if you take more than a cursory look at the photos from these marathons, you can tell they aren’t her. In fact, they look like stock photo models.”
A representative for Flanagan did not return multiple calls and emails asking for comment.
