Athletics brand Lululemon has cut ties with ultrarunner Camille Herron in the aftermath of an online controversy this week.
Wikipedia accounts tied to and her husband and coach Conor Holt had been editing Wikipedia articles about the Herron’s rivals, including ultra-trail running superstars Kilian Jornet and Courtney Dauwalter. Herron has been accused of negatively altering the Wikipedia entries of others, downplaying their achievements, while playing up her own performances and reputation.
In the past few months, athletes who’ve broken Herron’s ultrarunning records have also posted on Reddit and Facebook about the struggles they’ve had with the 42-year-old, who they say has meddled in the ratification process, implying these athletes cheated, and acted in a hostile manner towards fellow competitors.
Marathon Handbook reached out to Lululemon for comment on Wednesday about the allegations levelled against one it it’s signature athletes, and received the following statement Thursday morning from a representative of the company, which confirms Herron has been dropped by the brand effective immediately:
“We are commited to upholding equitable competition in sport for all and intentionally partner with ambassadors who embody these same values. After careful consideration and conversation, we have decided to end our ambassador partnership with Camille. We want to acknowledge Camille’s achievements during our partnership and wish her well in her future endeavors.”
On Thursday, Herron’s athlete website also went offline. And earlier this week as the controversy hit a fever pitch, Herron’s social media accounts were deactivated, although before removing her X page, she posted the following, implying that the accusations untrue:
On Wednesday afternoon, Holt, Herron’s husband and coach, responded to the allegations in an email to the running site and message board LetsRun.com, saying that he was to blame for the Wikipedia alterations, as he controlled two of the accounts associated with Herron over the years. Holt also suggested that the edits were made to protect Herron and her Wikipedia entry from “cyber bullies” who he claims have been harassing Herron.
Holt also acknowledged that he deactivated Herron’s social media accounts due to harassment.
Holt did not respond to our request for comment.
Marathon Handbook learned on Wednesday afternoon that Herron also appears to have created her own Wikipedia entry back in 2015, using the handle “runcamille,” and then edited it multiple times herself over the course of roughly a year-and-a-half.
Creating and editing your own Wikipedia entry is strictly forbidden on the platform, as it violates the organization’s conflict of interest rules. Wikipedia also states that friends, family members or anyone closely associated with a subject should not create or alter their page in any way.
At the time that she created her own Wikipedia entry in 2015, Herron was not considered a notable elite athlete, and she had yet to move from running road marathons to ultra distances or set any substantial records.
The accounts associated with Herron and her husband have also been shown to have had a history of editing major Wikipedia entries such as the “ultrarunning” entry, including Herron’s performances and effectively writing her into the history books. Herron has set multiple ultra distance records in recent years, but has now also seen many of them be broken by others.
Herron and her husband have now had multiple accounts linked to them banned from the platform for this violation.
Lululemon‘s dumping Herron comes just months after the company prominently featured her in one of its most ambitious marketing initiatives and years: Further. The six-day ultrarunning event in California positioned Herron as a positive role model for women, as she attempted to break multiple ultrarunning records, and the brand leveraged Herron’s performances to help market its new women’s running shoe.
UPDATE (Sept. 27, 9:00 a.m. EDT): Herron re-emerged on Instagram to post the following statement:
