Many popular social media influencers perform impressive but dangerous athletic stunts in public at their own risk and at the risk of those around them, all for the sake of social media clout.
Some influencers get away with it while others suffer consequences, leaving them to wonder afterward if their stunt was worth pursuing in the first place.
The latter is what happened to Matt Choi, a runner with over 400K followers on Instagram.
He was slapped with a lifetime ban from the New York City Marathon for having a pair of unauthorized e-bike riders tasked with filming him in tandem with him running in the race, putting fellow runners at risk for serious injury.
Although Choi finished with an impressive finish time in just under three hours, running the 26.2-mile course through all five boroughs, he was also disqualified from the official results for his safety indiscretion.
Here is the video of him running in last Sunday's NYC Marathon.
Realizing he had subjected other marathon runners to the risk of serious injury, Choi apologized in an Instagram video, in which he admitted he "f'd up."
"This wasn't a video I was planning on making," said Choi while out and about during the day in the city.
He continued, "But, I have no excuses. Full stop."
"I was selfish on Sunday to have my brother and my videographer follow me around on the course on e-bikes, and it had serious consequences."
"It endangered other runners, we impacted people going for PBs, we blocked people from getting water."
"And with the New York City Marathon being about everyone else and about the community, I made it about myself."
"And for anyone I impacted, I’m sorry.”
"To be clear, this is 100% on me. It wasn't my brother trying to get a shot; It wasn't my partner's asking me to get content, I just got really excited about the thought of hitting sub 3 New York and I got overzealous about getting all the shots."
Choi said he received an email from New York Road Runners (NYRR), the non-profit group that organized the city's marathon event, for a chance to appeal the imposed ban on him, but he chose not to pursue it.
"I made my bed, so I'm gonna lay on it," said Choi.
The athlete noted it wasn't the first time he was called out for using e-bikes to film his content; however, Choi vowed he would no longer incorporate the bikes for filming future videos.
"That stops here. It won't happen again," he said, adding, "My word is my bond."
You can watch his apology video here.
Social media users gave him props for owning up to his mistake, apologizing to fellow runners, and aiming to do better in the future.
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Not everyone found it easy to forgive Choi.
Some downplayed his apology as a reaction to getting caught.
One skeptical Instagrammer pointed out Choi posted three other videos from the NYC marathon before the apology video, meaning he had "time to reflect, with every edit made to those videos" and still "chose image over sport."
User @takingvicpics, wrote in part:
"I can understand people accepting and thanking him for his apology. That’s fair. But let’s not praise him for something he had to do to save his image."
“'He sounds remorseful, Yeah, one of his collabs dropped him , and he is banned by NYRR. I’d be pretty remorseful too."
"The best thing this guy can do moving forward is check his ego at the start line and put the phone down. That will demonstrate growth and earn respect."
Another unconvinced user wrote:
"This is literally the third time you’ve done this and faced backlash - so why should anyone believe you are being genuine now?"
"If you truly are sorry, do some work on yourself and try to do something for the running community that’s not motivated by your own fame. Until then, you are just expressing that you are sorry you got caught."
Others are giving Choi the benefit of the doubt and hope he follows through with his promise.
They also look forward to seeing him continue to do great things without inconveniencing others.
@matt_choi6/Instagram
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One user summed up apologies and forgiveness best.
User @fred_lasso11 addressed the running community and suggested they dial back on the backlash.
"Everyone makes mistakes, fam. You’ll be back before you know it. A lifetime ban feels extreme," read the comment.
"We all claim to be good people, but sometimes, when something affects us, even for a moment, we forget the importance of forgiveness."
"I’ve always believed in standing by others, even in tough times, and as frustrating as this might be, runners support each other through it all."
"He made a mistake, and it’s surprising to see so few people willing to forgive. Whether his actions were selfish or not, I don’t see how this benefits the running community."
"Judging someone by their worst moment instead of their best just doesn’t make sense to me."
Onward and upward.
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