Fitness Influencer Loses Shoe Sponsorship After Admitting She Cheated in Berlin Marathon

A Chinese fitness content creator has had her sponsorship contract terminated and her marathon result annulled after she admitted to completing part of the Berlin Marathon on a bicycle rather than on foot.

Sun Yuanyuan, who posts under the handle Abeeeer on Chinese social media, had publicly celebrated what appeared to be a personal best at the German race, which took place at the end of September. Her claim unravelled when an Instagram account devoted to exposing misleading race results published photographic evidence that appeared to show her riding on the back of a bicycle between the 35km and 40km marks of the 42.2km course.

The fallout has been swift and severe. Brooks, the American running shoe manufacturer that had sponsored the influencer, confirmed to the BBC that it has severed ties with her. Berlin Marathon organisers have disqualified her finish time. Sun herself has issued a public apology, conceding that she deliberately deceived her followers and broke the rules of the race.

The scandal has been fuelled by an Instagram page calling itself the Official Marathon Time Integrity Unit, or OMTIU, which first circulated the incriminating photograph. The account posted an image appearing to show Sun seated on the back of a bike being pedalled by another person while the marathon was underway. It supplemented the image with a breakdown of her split times — the durations recorded for each five-kilometre segment of the race.

According to that timing grid, Sun's pace quickened noticeably between the 35km and 40km checkpoints, precisely the stretch during which she is alleged to have been cycling rather than running. Such an anomaly would be difficult to explain through natural variation in pace, particularly so late in a marathon when most competitors are slowing rather than accelerating.

In her apology, posted on the Chinese platform Rednote, Sun did not attempt to deny the allegations. She wrote that she would offer no excuses for her conduct, acknowledging that she had felt physically unwell during the race but insisting that this did not justify breaking the rules. She described her decision to take a shortcut as disrespectful to the fairness of the competition and to the spirit of marathon running.

The influencer, who commands a following of roughly 520,000 users on Rednote, further admitted that she had "deliberately concealed" what she had done, adding that she felt deeply guilty about her actions. The apology was subsequently shared by OMTIU, the same account that had exposed the discrepancy in her race data.

Brooks issued a statement confirming the end of its commercial relationship with Sun. The company said it believes running should be grounded in integrity, fairness and respect for competition, and explained that after verifying the facts it had terminated its relationship with the individual through its China operation and addressed the matter publicly. The decision reflects the growing willingness of athletic brands to distance themselves rapidly from influencers whose conduct threatens to tarnish their reputations.

The episode has thrust OMTIU into the spotlight. The account was established to draw attention to what it describes as a growing trend of GPS-based fabrication, selectively curated displays on the fitness tracking app Strava, and false personal-record claims, particularly among fitness influencers. Its stated mission is to protect the integrity of the sport by ensuring that the times athletes share publicly correspond to the times they actually ran.

At the same time, the page's Instagram biography describes it as "satire," a detail that adds a layer of ambiguity to its role. Regardless of how it characterises itself, its intervention in this case proved consequential, triggering both the sponsor's withdrawal and the disqualification of Sun's result.

The Berlin Marathon has been contacted by the BBC for comment, but no response had been published at the time of writing. Race organisers have already taken the step of removing Sun's finishing time from official records, a move that underscores how seriously major marathon events treat violations of competitive rules.

The case sits within a broader debate about authenticity in the influencer economy. As fitness creators monetise their athletic achievements through brand partnerships and sponsorship deals, the incentives to exaggerate or fabricate results have grown. Marathons, with their large fields and limited checkpoint enforcement, can be vulnerable to such manipulation, especially when timing mats and official splits are not rigorously cross-checked against photographic or video evidence.

For brands, the risks are considerable. A sponsorship deal with an athlete or influencer is effectively an endorsement of that person's credibility, and revelations of cheating can transfer reputational damage to the sponsor. Brooks' prompt termination suggests companies are increasingly aware of this exposure and prepared to act decisively when verification fails.

For Sun, the consequences extend beyond the loss of a sponsorship contract. Her disqualification strips her of the personal best she had claimed, and her public admission of deliberate concealment may affect her standing with followers who valued her as an authentic voice in the fitness community. Whether she can rebuild that trust remains uncertain.

The incident also highlights the role that amateur watchdog accounts now play in policing athletic claims. Where once a disputed race result might have gone unchallenged, social media allows evidence to be assembled, published and amplified within days, forcing sponsors and race organisers to respond. In this instance, a single Instagram post appears to have been sufficient to unravel a claim that had already been broadcast to hundreds of thousands of followers.