Rosie Ruiz, As Mysterious In Death As She Was In Boston History
BOSTON (CBS) - This week, the news hit Boston that the infamous Boston Marathon cheater Rosie Ruiz has died. It was a development as mysterious as her ordeal in the city nearly four decades ago.
An obituary with a photo that looks like her, but with a different last name was suddenly yanked from a Florida funeral home's website. That had people speculating for days, before finally concluding she died of cancer July 8th.
Back in 1980, she took a seat on the WBZ news set to declare her innocence. "I could take a polygraph test, but I don't think that it would measure anything concrete," she said. It was an exclusive interview days after Ruiz allegedly snuck into the end of the race, claiming the Boston Marathon title that year.
WBZ Sports anchor Bob Lobel put Ruiz on the spot. "Is it possible, Rosie, that you even doubt now whether you ran the race or not?"
"No there's no doubt in my own mind," she answered. "I know what I did and I will prove it again in the future."
Lobel remembers it as one of the most bizarre moments of his career. "I wish she would've owned up to it and freed herself from all the controversy, but nope, she wasn't going to do it," Lobel said.
"She was a troubled soul," said Bill Rodgers, who won the men's race that year. "When Rosie came in...she wasn't sweating, so I immediately knew something was wrong."
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Others noticed too. "A, she didn't look like a runner," said marathon television announcer Tony Reavis. "B, she was wearing a very heavy top that was not covered in sweat."
"I don't know why she thought she could beat it," said Lobel. "But then she spent the rest of her life running away from it."
After Ruiz was disqualified, Jacqueline Gareau was awarded the victory in a special ceremony a week after the race. Gareau's time was the fastest recorded for a woman in Boston Marathon history at that time.