© Copyright – 2024 – Athletics Illustrated

While Camille Herron has prepared for and is racing the 153-mile (247km) Spartathlon in Greece, news erupted around the ultramarathon community that Camille Herron and her partner Conor Holt have allegedly manipulated Wikipedia pages about her and her competitors.

The allegations are that she has fluffed her own page and accomplishments, while at the same time, removing positive information from her competitors as well as famed ultramarathon athlete Kilian Jornet of Spain. The Americans are now facing a fallout from WikipediaGate.

Conor Holt’s email to Let’s Run

Athletics Illustrated reached out to Conor Holt, however, received no response from him. He did, however, send an email message to Let’s Run, the website with the popular chat forum.

Holt claimed that Herron had nothing to do with the alleged Wikipedia edits. He wrote, “Camille had nothing to do with this. I am 100% responsible and apologize for any athletes affected by this and the wrong I did.”

The Let’s Run forum participants smell a rat and have been calling Holt out over the claim.

Herron’s email and IP addresses have allegedly been implicated more than once. Apparently, after Wikipedia banned them for breaking their editing and contribution rules.

Holt claims that he was protecting Herron from bullying. He also claimed that he deactivated Herron’s social media profiles to protect her from bullying. Apparently, the apple does not fall far from the tree. Herron’s mother took to Canadian Running Magazine’s Facebook page, where the story was linked. She was busy defending her daughter against bullying and admonished the magazine.

Canadian Running Magazine broke the story

Canadian Running Magazine journalist Marley Dickinson exposed Herron and her coach for manipulating information on Wikipedia on September 23rd. Since then the fallout has been global and vociferous.

Dickinson wrote, “Acclaimed American ultrarunner Camille Herron, who has more than 12 ultrarunning world records to her name, along with her coach and husband, Conor Holt, have found themselves at the centre of a Wikipedia controversy. It stems from several edits to the Wikipedia pages of ultrarunners Kilian Jornet and Courtney Dauwalter, which degraded their accomplishments, while also adding accolades to Herron’s own page. The edits have been traced back to Herron’s email and Holt’s IP address.

The couple has been operating under the username “Rundbowie” since February 2024, after their previous Wikipedia account, “Temporun73,” was temporarily banned for violating Wikipedia’s conflict of interest policies for the edits to Herron’s page. Just hours after Temporun73 was banned, a new account under the name “Rundbowie” was created and resumed activity, making edits to Herron’s page and to those of other athletes.”

Lululemon drops Herron

Canadian company Lululemon swiftly dropped Herron.

Lululemon released a statement to Canadian Running on Thursday: “We are committed to upholding equitable competition in sport for all and intentionally partner with ambassadors who embody these same values. After careful consideration and conversation, we have decided to end our ambassador partnership with Camille. We want to acknowledge Camille’s achievements during our partnership and wish her well in her future endeavours.”

1 COMMENT

  1. I don’t see any of the edits as a counter to anything that would be construed as bullying? The bullies he mentions are general Wikipedia editors and moderators. This also doesn’t comment on the accolades they removed from Killian and Courtney’s Wikipedia pages.

    Given Camilles history of very similar behaviour. I don’t think anyone believes she was not complicit. Note the Wikipedia account was tied to her email (her old email from grad school), not his. Does she have nothing to do with her own email account either?

    I would acknowledge and apologize for what I did rather than let my husband take the blame.

Comments are closed.