In LA
https://abc7.com/sports/70-year-old-disqualified-la-marathon-runner-found-dead/5379340/
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Wow, just wow. Horrible.
Praying for his family, friends, and loved ones.
Geeze. Prayers for his family.
To end up like this, after this ridiculous chain of events - wow, just speechless.
This incident has thrown a truly revealing light on the internet’s ability to put immense pressure even on an accomplished, mature yet clearly troubled individual.
Even if the dude cheated, who f-Ing cares?! Seriously, are d-bag insecure little bitch$& that uptight that they’ll open an online investigation into this and even go on some kind of moral crusade to out someone so that whether it’s related or not, dude ends up dead? F-Ing disgrace. Anyone who gives more than half a rats’ ass is a loser. Go and get a life already. Sad.
said on a forum that dedicated 22 pages to him with little thought. And has done the same over the years to others.
Even if the dude cheated, who f-Ing cares?! Seriously, are d-bag insecure little bitch$& that uptight that they’ll open an online investigation into this and even go on some kind of moral crusade to out someone so that whether it’s related or not, dude ends up dead? F-Ing disgrace. Anyone who gives more than half a rats’ ass is a loser. Go and get a life already. Sad.
Harsh but part of me agrees with you.
He was a cheat. Multiple times. Then lied. Over and over.
But I still feel for his loved ones and family.
Couldn’t give a rats about him however.
said on a forum that dedicated 22 pages to him with little thought. And has done the same over the years to others.
True. On many forums there was enormous pressure. For some reason, posters write as if “piling on” might end/reduce cheating. What happens then is the punishment is not commiserate to the offense. While it’s worthwhile to disqualify cheaters/dopers, making them “wish they were dead” is not where we want to be either.
And some athletes behavior, in and out of sports, is also picked apart on boards/news which also seems to amplify their individual problems.
We could do better.
Horrible. He cheated though and denied. That’s why people went on digging and digging. How hard it might may sounds like, but matches aren’t safe spaces nor should they. Cheating will have consequences and Frank no matter if he had mental problems or not (I bet he did) had it coming. How he acted on the revelations is on him and only himself not ST or Marathon investigations.
To end up like this, after this ridiculous chain of events - wow, just speechless.
This incident has thrown a truly revealing light on the internet’s ability to put immense pressure even on an accomplished, mature yet clearly troubled individual.
Fucking hell. This whole thing, start to finish, has left me speechless on so many fronts.
It is really not suprising. He alone backed himself so far into a corner that there wasn’t much coming back. He had the choice to live out his last years in complete disgrace because of his own actions or just end it. Still, I feel sorry for his loved ones and also for him that he needed to cheat for some sort of fulfilment in his life.
Horrible. He cheated though and denied. That’s why people went on digging and digging. How hard it might may sounds like, but matches aren’t safe spaces nor should they. Cheating will have consequences and Frank no matter if he had mental problems or not (I bet he did) had it coming. How he acted on the revelations is on him and only himself not ST or Marathon investigations.
This.
He cheated, he got caught. I have no problem whatsoever with him being exposed as a cheater. How he reacted to it is his own responsibility. It seems he chose to burden the people close to him with taking his own life, which is sad, but which is his own responsibility.
In general I have no issue with those who have pursued the evidence to expose Frank as a cheat. Certainly I have no issue with how Derek Murphy has conducted himself. People must take personal responsibility for their own actions and sadly this guy continued to deny his dishonesty, causing people to dig even deeper and deeper, exposing ever more damning evidence giving him nowhere to go. By all accounts this looks to have been repeated, premeditated cheating, planned in detail.
I doubt that discussions on these boards have been a catalyst, more likely the print and broadcast news reporting that will have reached a much wider audience, so we probably shouldn’t beat ourselves up too badly. That said, it never hurts to take a look at our own conduct and ask ourselves whether we are happy with the way we have behaved.
It is very sad and I feel horrible for those close to him. Whatever he has done in these running events I’m sure Frank Meza has helped many, many people throughout his long career as a doctor.
Horrible. He cheated though and denied. That’s why people went on digging and digging. How hard it might may sounds like, but matches aren’t safe spaces nor should they. Cheating will have consequences and Frank no matter if he had mental problems or not (I bet he did) had it coming. How he acted on the revelations is on him and only himself not ST or Marathon investigations.
This.
He cheated, he got caught. I have no problem whatsoever with him being exposed as a cheater. How he reacted to it is his own responsibility. It seems he chose to burden the people close to him with taking his own life, which is sad, but which is his own responsibility.
I don’t often comment on slowtwitch, but visit every day, the Meza thread was one that I did follow with interest. First and foremost I feel bad for the family, as I would for anyone who goes through a family member losing their life. I’m afraid that’s where the sympathy ends, when we talk about the Internet pushing people to do this kind of thing its absolute bollocks. Do we not expose cheats for fear of this happening again? To hell with the people who’s records are broken? The man had the choice to back down plenty of times, as is always the case.
It is possible to have two thoughts in your head at the same time. Of course you expose cheats and get them DQ`ed, and no one questions who’s fault it is. Frank is the one to blame through and through. But it is still possible to feel sorry for the guy.
Imagine finding yourself in a position where you feel that the only out left is throwing yourself off of an overpass at the age of 70. I can’t imagine what could have driven me to that point. Yes it was Franks choice but what can we learn from this? Personally I will definitely try to look for tells if someone close to me does something stupid in the future. Especially if it gets highlighted by newspapers, talkshows etc. It is hard to tell how people react to something like that.
Maybe a DQ would have been enough?
He competed in an official public sporting event and claimed a world record. It is not inappropriate for fans to scrutinize his performance.
Suicide is a horrible act of violence against those closest to you as well as yourself.
That being said, Frank should be admired and praised for the person he was and we should be compassionate and merciful in recognizing the pain this brought him.
The cheating part of this is obviously part of a larger mental health issue. The cheating issue seemed so irrational to begin with and now the ultimate irrational action - suicide. Depression is a powerful human condition. I’m sorry Frank could not deal with it.
-not a doctor, pure speculation, but likely the case imo.
Should you have a conscience for those who do not, out of compassion for those who will ultimately be hurt?
The ethics of collateral damages are hotly debated, but in our society it is accepted that there are rules, and breaking them leads to consequences that often have impacts on innocent victims. Although these are unfortunate, we have decided that punishment weighted more in the balance.
said on a forum that dedicated 22 pages to him with little thought. And has done the same over the years to others.
True. On many forums there was enormous pressure. For some reason, posters write as if “piling on” might end/reduce cheating. What happens then is the punishment is not commiserate to the offense. While it’s worthwhile to disqualify cheaters/dopers, making them “wish they were dead” is not where we want to be either.
And some athletes behavior, in and out of sports, is also picked apart on boards/news which also seems to amplify their individual problems.
We could do better.
B.S. This guy wasn’t being “punished” because he cheated. The internet pile-on continued because he wouldn’t admit to the increasingly obvious. If he had just released a statement admitting to the cheating, “the internet” would have forgot about him in 48 hours. He could have blamed it on mental illness, on Trump, on Global Warming, or sugar coated it in any way that made it more palatable. The false dichotomy choice he set up (continue to deny or take his own life) is his responsibility alone. He (apparently) offed himself not because of what random strangers were doing on the internet, but because he believed he couldn’t face his friends and family with the truth. It’s too bad for them that he couldn’t see that his life value was more than his fake race results.