Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
All the entries posted on October 11, 2007.
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Home > Uncovering Mexico > Archives > 2007 > October > 11
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Madrazo’s bizarre explanation
One of the stranger pieces of prose I’ve ever run into popped into my e-mail yesterday afternoon: Roberto Madrazo’s slightly incoherent explanation of the Berlin Marathon cheating scandal that has sullied his reputation.
Madrazo dedicates his explanation to the “Mexican Sports Community,” who he says are the ones who will understand his behavior. Madrazo is accused of taking a shortcut of about nine miles in the marathon. For several days he was crowned the winner of his age division before marathon officials stripped him of his title.
Madrazo doesn’t get to the heart of the matter until the last lines of the message. After blaming the brouhaha on politics and explaining that he didn’t feel well on race day (and relaying that Mexican doctors advised him to rest instead of running the marathon) Madrazo writes: “I had to stop at Kilometer 21 and I went directly to the finish line for my clothes and my medal of participation, the same one given to all runners without exception.”
The problem is, Madrazo’s microchip-based results show he didn’t go directly to the finish line. He ran the last leg of the race, finishing the final five kilometers in 25 minutes, 42 seconds. And the photo of him at the finish line shows him with his arms outstretched, a big grin on his face, clearly relishing the moment.
Madrazo also felt it was important to include the results of the six races he’s run since finishing a distant third in last year’s presidential election. They include the not too shabby time of 3:37 in the San Diego marathon.
He also thought we should know his future plans, including a 10K event in Mexico City that should be quite a spectacle. He also plans to be at the Austin half marathon in February 2008.
But perhaps most strangely, Madrazo used the message to announce his new foundation, called, of course, Marathon.