At first, Andrea Karl thought she won the St. Louis Marathon on Sunday. Then, for a brief time, it looked like she hadn’t. Finally, it was confirmed she was the official winner.
There was reason for the confusion. From out of nowhere, an unidentified woman appeared to steal Karl’s victory when she crossed the finish line first.
The end of the race was eerily similar to the story of Rosie Ruiz—who was caught cheating in the 1980 Boston Marathon—although this attempt to snatch a marathon win without running the entire race was short lived.
“They said someone had crossed before me and she really wasn’t…” Karl told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I don’t know. People were telling me on the course as I was going that I was the first female. I thought I was most of the way.”
The course cutter crossed the finish line first, but it turned out there was no record of her at any point on the course. The woman disappeared after the race and was disqualified from the competition.
Karl, who finished in 2:54:28, was declared the champion. She is working toward a doctorate at Washington University in the molecular genetics and genomics program, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She won $1,500 for her efforts.
