A Chinese fitness influencer apologised for cheating at the 2026 Berlin Marathon after pictures showed her riding a bicycle during the race.
Abeeeer, as the influencer with 530,000 followers across social media is known, was pictured on a bicycle near the 38km mark of the race, according to the Official Marathon Time Integrity Unit, or OMTIU, an Instagram page dedicated to calling out inaccurate or misleading race times posted by influencers.
The pictures were widely circulated online and even reported on by some Chinese news outlets.
According to OMTIU, started last year by a two Australian runners, Abeeeer’s fastest split of the race came in the 35-40km stretch where she was seen riding to the finish line.
The influencer had claimed that she achieved her “personal best” at the Berlin marathon.
On 3 October, however, Abeeeer admitted she violated the race rules and apologised on social media.
She said “feeling unwell” was not an excuse for her actions, according to What’s On Weibo, a platform covering Chinese social media trends.
Abeeeer later removed posts related to the marathon from her account on RedNote, known locally as Xiaohongshu.
On Sunday, OMTIU posted an apology from one of Abeeeer’s sponsors, Brooks China, a sports brand, which said it was aware of the collaborator’s training plans and goals for the marathon and had given her equipment for the race.
The company said its checks had fallen short. “After the race, although we verified the finishing results and related text, images, and video materials they provided, we didn’t conduct a thorough and detailed review of the entire participation process, especially information such as segment data,” it said, calling this “an oversight on our part”.
Brooks said it had immediately terminated its relationship with the collaborator and “will never work with her again”.
On Reddit, Abeeeer’s pictures became a topic of discussion. “What’s the point if you have to cheat? Such a strange choice,” one user wrote.
Others questioned how she had secured a place in an early starting corral while some criticised the brands that had sponsored her.
One commenter described the sponsorship relationship as “disgraceful”.
OMTIU routinely calls out running influencers for allegedly posting misleading race performances, particularly by presenting Strava or GPS distances or times instead of their official chip times.
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