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This Ultramarathon Runner Was Dropped By A Major Sponsor Amid A Wikipedia Editing Scandal
Camille Herron, 42, is one of the world's top ultramarathon runners, having set 12 world records and becoming the youngest woman to reach 100,000 lifetime running miles. But now, the American athlete is involved in a scandal that's rocking the ultramarathon community.
It all stems from a bombshell Canadian Running piece, which reports changes to Wikipedia pages traced back to an email account and IP address linked to Camille and her husband/coach Conor Holt.
Subsequently, Camille has been dropped by a major sponsor and several runners have spoken out against her. Here's what to know about the scandal.
What is Camille Herron's Wikipedia controversy?
On September 23, Canadian Running reported that two accounts linked to Camille and her husband Conor made a series of edits to competitors' Wikipedia pages, including those of Courtney Dauwalter and Killian Jornet.
The couple was linked to a previous account called "Temporun73," which was temporarily banned in February for violating Wikipedia’s conflict of interest policies. Just a few hours after it was banned, the outlet says, a new profile named “Rundbowie” popped up, making edits to Camille and other athlete's pages.
The account repeatedly removed statements like “widely regarded as one of the best trail runners ever” from Courtney and Killian's pages, under the justification of “removing puffery.” But at the same time, the account added a statement to Camille's page describing her as “widely regarded as one of the greatest ultramarathon runners of all time.” The edits were traced back to Camille's email and Conor's IP address, per Canadian Running.
In addition, between June and September 2024, the account altered the "Ultramarathon" Wikipedia page to remove Danish ultrarunner Stine Rex’s 48-hour and six-day world records.
"Since 2017, Herron’s two accounts have made more than 300 contributions to pages on Wikipedia, of which more than half are entirely embellishments to Herron’s page," the article reads.
Camille denied the accusations on X (formerly Twitter) before deleting her accounts on the platform and Instagram, per Runner's World. In a September 23 email to the blog Let's Run, Conor said that he is "100 percent responsible" for the accounts.
"Camille had nothing to do with this. I... apologize for any athletes affected by this and the wrong I did," he wrote. "I was only trying to protect Camille from the constant bullying, harassment and accusations she has endured in her running career, which has severely impacted her mental health. So much to the point that she has sought professional mental health help."
What does the ultramarathon world think?
In the days since Canadian Running published the report, fellow athletes have spoken out against Camille.
"In my forty-six years of ultrarunning, I’ve never seen anyone as talented as Camille, who is so dedicated to creating division and animosity within the ultrarunning community," Global Organization Of Multi-day Marathoners president Trishul Cherns told Canadian Running.
Trishul added that he was "appalled" by Camille’s efforts to "discredit fellow athletes," continuing that "this unsportsmanlike behaviour is bullying and mean-spirited, and has no place in the larger ultrarunning community."
On September 26, Camille was dropped by Lululemon, her primary sponsor, Runner's World reports. She had signed with the brand in February 2023, becoming the brand’s first ultrarunner ambassador, per Canadian Running.
"We are committed to upholding equitable competition in sport for all and intentionally partner with ambassadors who embody these same values," the brand said in a statement to both outlets. "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 endeavors."
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