![Rosie Ruiz Finishes Boston Marathon Rosie Ruiz Finishes Boston Marathon](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ruiz.jpeg?quality=85&w=2400)
To observers at the finish line, Rosie Ruiz must have seemed like the fittest athlete ever to run the Boston Marathon. On this day, April 21, in 1980, the 26-year-old New Yorker finished first among the marathon’s women runners in near-record time — just over two and a half hours. Even more impressive: When officials crowned her the winner, she was barely sweating, according to Mass Moments, the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities’ online history almanac. Her hair was still perfectly styled, and her face was hardly flushed after the 26-mile race.
Ruiz made winning a marathon look easy. And it was, using her signature strategy: Don’t run the whole thing.
Officials were dubious, however, partly because of her unsweaty nonchalance and partly because no one — neither competitors nor spectators — could remember having seen her during the first 25 miles. When witnesses came forward a few days later to say they’d seen her run onto the course from the sidelines just a mile from the finish line, her medal was revoked.
Ruiz’s own admissions might have given her away in any case: She acknowledged that she’d only started training 18 months earlier, by running around Central Park. And she’d only ever competed in one other marathon: the New York Marathon, where she’d had a notably slower (although still impressive) time.
Legendary runner Kathrine Switzer — the first woman ever to officially compete in the Boston Marathon — was instantly suspicious when she spoke to Ruiz after the race, which she was covering that day as a television commentator. Switzer asked what Ruiz’s intervals had been, per TIME; Ruiz replied, “What’s an interval?”
The Boston Marathon Throughout History
![Winner of 1916 Boston Marathon Winner of 1916 Boston Marathon, Arthur Roth.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-01.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Johnny Miles Crossing Tape in Race Johnny Miles Crossing Tape in Race](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-02.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Brown Ellison M. "Tarzan" Brown, from Alton, R.I., crosses the finish line in the 43rd Boston Marathon, 1939.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-03.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Boston Marathon Winner Gerard B. Cote Gerard B. Cote, winner of the Boston Marathon in 1940.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-04.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Milkman Wins Boston Marathon Joe Smith, 1942 winner of the Boston Marathon](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-05.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Boston Marathon View In 1946 Boston Marathon View In 1946](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-06.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Boston Marathon Winner Gerard B. Cote Gerard Cote running the 1946 Boston Marathon.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-07.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![1947 Boston Marathon Suh Yun-bok, 24, of South Korea, crosses the finish line, setting a new record in the Boston Marathon, 1947.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-08.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Boston Marathon Yamada 1953 Keizo Yamada, 25-year-old Japanese mining engineer, crosses finish line to win 57th Boston Marathon, 1953.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-09.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![237 runners competing in annual Boston M 237 runners competing in annual Boston Marathon crossing the starting line, 1963.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-10.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Jack Semple Entering Racing Formation Jack Semple Entering Racing Formation](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-11.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Ambrose Burfoot winning the Boston Marathon Ambrose Burfoot #17 of Wesleyan University crosses the finish line of 72nd running of the Boston Marathon, 1968.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-12.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Amby Burfoot Wins The 1968 Boston Marathon Amby Burfoot, right, and Jock Semple at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, April 19, 1968.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-13.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Kathy Switzer Runs In The 1971 Boston Marathon Kathy Switzer runs in the Boston Marathon on April 19, 1971.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-14.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Kathy Switzer Runs In The 1972 Boston Marathon Kathy Switzer Runs In The 1972 Boston Marathon](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-15.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Boston Marathon Bill Rodgers, winner of the 1978 Boston Marathon](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-16.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![1979 Boston Marathon Women's Winner Joan Benoit Joan Benoit, the women's winner of the Boston Marathon, April 16, 1979.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-17.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Patti Catalano Finishes The 1981 Boston Marathon Patti Catalano Finishes The 1981 Boston Marathon](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-18.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![BOSTON MARATHON SALAZAR Boston Marathon winner Alberto Salazar, 1982](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-19.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![From The Archives: Boston Marathon: The Last American Winners The start of the Boston Marathon, 1983](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-20.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Boston Marathon Joan Benoit wins the 1983 Women's Boston marathon](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-21.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![REINHART FALLS Dave Reinhart at the Boston marathon, 1983](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-22.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Greg Meyer Greg Meyer, winner of the 1983 Boston Marathon](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-23.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![BOSTON MARATHON An unidentified man attired in business suit and black hat, jumped into the Boston Marathon pack Monday, April 17, 1984.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-24.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![KELLEY'S 55TH John A. Kelley, 78, smiles as he approaches the finish line at the 90th running of the Boston Marathon, April 21, 1986. Kelley's finish marked his 55th Boston Marathon.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150407-boston-marathon-25.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
More deception was revealed when New York Marathon officials looked into Ruiz’s 24th-place finish in that race and discovered that she had used a similar strategy to qualify for the Boston Marathon — by taking the subway instead of running most of the course. According to the New York Daily News, Ruiz explained the fact that she was wearing a marathon number by telling fellow subway riders that she had twisted her ankle and just wanted to see the end of the race.
She may not have had much training as a distance runner, but she seemed to have a great deal of practice in bending the truth. Even her application for the New York Marathon was based on a lie: An Associated Press story reveals that she submitted the form after the deadline had passed, but then got “special dispensation” by claiming she had a fatal brain tumor.
And while Ruiz never faced criminal consequences for faking her race finishes, she later ran afoul of the law for unrelated reasons. In 1982, she was charged with stealing $60,000 from the realty company she worked for, and in 1983 she was arrested for selling two kilos of cocaine to an undercover detective, per the AP.
Meanwhile, Boston Marathon organizers have made it harder to follow in Ruiz’s fraudulent footsteps. An unscrupulous couple who finished first in the senior category of the 1997 marathon were quickly found out, despite having registered at the course’s computer checkpoints, because they failed to appear on video shot at secret locations.
Read more about the history of the Boston Marathon, here in the TIME archives: A Long Running Show
Read next: Survivor: Last Year’s Marathon Was for Boston. This Year’s Is for Me.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Breaking Down the 2024 Election Calendar
- How Nayib Bukele’s ‘Iron Fist’ Has Transformed El Salvador
- What if Ultra-Processed Foods Aren’t as Bad as You Think?
- How Ukraine Beat Russia in the Battle of the Black Sea
- Long COVID Looks Different in Kids
- How Project 2025 Would Jeopardize Americans’ Health
- What a $129 Frying Pan Says About America’s Eating Habits
- The 32 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2024
Contact us at letters@time.com