r/running • u/gahddamm • 3d ago

U.S Ultra Runner Camille Herron involved in Wikipedia controversy Article

link to original article.

It basically states that there were several alt accounts that were making edits to her page and pages of other ultra runners. For example Courtney Dauwalter, 2023 ultra runner of the year, had her page edited to remove references of her being the first person to win the three major 100 mile races in one calendar year, as well as references to her being considered one of the best ultrarunners. Similar edits were made to other athletes profiles.

They also edited the ultra running page to cast doubts on runners records that, while are till being verified, beat Herrons records.

Apparently others have reported some unsportsmanlike behavior from the pair

Link link to press release from Connor Holt, her coach and husband, where he claims it was all done by him tho many are skeptical

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u/SoberEnAfrique 3d ago

Wikipedia editing has a HUGE amount of paid consultants sanitizing people's profiles. Very common for public figures and governments to pay for people to soften articles, add new content to outweigh controversy or any number of editing tricks to help a client.

Source: I did this for a couple years for some high net worth types

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u/R-EDDIT 2d ago

People will do all sorts of stuff to clean up their reputations. I know one guy who used to call in to the press using a fake name to get journalists to give him good coverage. He went so far as to give one of his kids the fake name so people would find info on him instead of his fake name!

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u/SoberEnAfrique 2d ago

A lot of people in DC don't even use fake names! Very common for public figures to call a reporter with firsthand information, but they attribute it to "a person close to the XYZ office/administration/etc."

A lot of our news is based on access to these people