Acclaimed American ultrarunner Camille Herron, who has more than 12 ultrarunning world records to her name, along with her coach and husband, Conor Ho

U.S. ultrarunner Camille Herron involved in Wikipedia controversy

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2024-10-03 11:00:03

Acclaimed American ultrarunner Camille Herron, who has more than 12 ultrarunning world records to her name, along with her coach and husband, Conor Holt, have found themselves at the centre of a Wikipedia controversy. It stems from several edits to the Wikipedia pages of ultrarunners Kilian Jornet and Courtney Dauwalter, which degraded their accomplishments, while also adding accolades to Herron’s own page. The edits have been traced back to Herron’s email and Holt’s IP address.

The couple has been operating under the username “Rundbowie” since February 2024, after their previous Wikipedia account, “Temporun73,” was temporarily banned for violating Wikipedia’s conflict of interest policies for the edits to Herron’s page. Just hours after Temporun73 was banned, a new account under the name “Rundbowie” was created and resumed activity, making edits to Herron’s page and to those of other athletes.

One of the most contentious actions involved repeatedly removing statements like “widely regarded as one of the best trail runners ever” from Jornet and Dauwalter’s pages, with the justification of “removing puffery.” However, Herron simultaneously added a similar statement to her own page, describing herself as “widely regarded as one of the greatest ultramarathon runners of all time.”