Berlin Marathon Influencer Admits Cheating After Bizarre 6-Minute Split Raises Bike Shortcut Questions

Chinese fitness influencer Abeeeer admitted to cheating at the 2026 Berlin Marathon on 3 October after a photo and timing data exposed her bike ride near the 38km (23.6-mile) mark, showing how official race data can expose a false result.

Abeeeer, who has around 530,000 followers on the Chinese platform Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, posted a finishing time of 4 hours, 53 minutes, and 46 seconds after the 27 September race and called it a personal best. Her official splits told a different story.

Timing Mats Told the Real Story

Big-city marathons record chip times at mats every 5km (3.1 miles), allowing a runner's pace through each segment to be compared after results are published. Berlin Marathon results showed she covered the 35km to 40km (21.74 to 24.85-mile) section in 30 minutes and 49 seconds, her quickest 5km of the whole race and more than six minutes faster than the previous 5km, which took her 36 minutes and 51 seconds. That burst landed on the exact stretch where a spectator photograph placed her on the back of a bicycle near the 38km mark.

The Official Marathon Time Integrity Unit, an Instagram account run by two anonymous Australian runners, published the image on 1 October and pointed to the pace data.

Abeeeer's Shifting Explanation

Her first account was that she felt unwell around 38km, was sick, fell, and borrowed a friend's bike to find a race marshal so she could withdraw, insisting she had not skipped any of the course. The numbers and the photo did not match that version. On the fitness app Strava, she had logged the run as 'Berlin marathon (shortcut)'.

In her 3 October statement, she called the concealment 'extremely dishonest' and said physical discomfort 'absolutely should not have been a reason for me to break the rules'. Her marathon posts then disappeared from her account.

Brooks China Walks Away

The fallout reached her sponsorships within a day. On 4 October, running brand Brooks China said it had verified the facts and ended its partnership with her, and that it would not work with her again. The company also apologised for a gap in its own checks, conceding it had reviewed her finishing time and social media clips but never examined her split data before promoting her. 'Brooks believes running should be grounded in integrity, fairness, and respect for competition', the firm said.

A Warning for Influencer Marketing

For brands that pay creators to sell shoes and race plans, the admission is the sharper lesson. A sponsor that checks a glossy finish-line clip but not the public data behind it carries part of the risk when the story collapses.

For followers who bought the same shoes chasing a similar time, the gap between the posted result and the recorded result is the whole point. The case follows other recent scandals, including Texas influencer Matthew Choi, who was banned from the New York City Marathon in 2024 for running with a camera crew on e-bikes.

Berlin has since disqualified Abeeeer, yet the split that fuelled her personal-best claim is the same one that exposed the shortcut, ended her sponsorship deal, and damaged her credibility with followers and brands.