Rosie Ruiz Scandal

Rosie Ruiz Vivas (born 1953, Havana,Cuba) is an infamous Cuban American Marathon runner who on April 21, 1980 ostensibly came in as the first place female competitor in the 84th Boston Marathon, but who was later stripped of her title when it was found that she had cheated.

Rosie Ruiz Scandal : Rosie Ruiz crying in front of media after the exposure of her scandal.

Ruiz completed the marathon with a record time of 2:31:56. However, race officials determined that she had not completed the entire 26.2-mile course, but had registered for the race and later jumped in from the crowd and sprinted to the finish

There was suspicion from the beginning, as no one had seen her running earlier in the race, she did not appear in videotape footage, and some members of the crowd reported witnessing her run into the race in the last mile. In addition, her time of 2:31:56 was an unusual improvement, more than 25 minutes ahead of her reported time in the New York City Marathon six months earlier.

Jacqueline Gareau was awarded a winner's medal at a press conference over a week after the marathon. Her medal was bigger than the one that Ruiz had originally received, equal in size to the larger men's medal. (Since the 1980 race, women and men have been awarded medals equal in size.)


Courtesy : wikipedia

Michael Steele bested South Carolina Republican party Chairman Katon Dawson 91 to 77

The Republican National Committee elected Michael Steele as its first African American chairman today in Washington.

On the sixth and final ballot Steele bested South Carolina Republican party Chairman Katon Dawson 91 to 77.

Steele had previously served as the chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, the state's lieutenant governor, and the GOP nominee in the Maryland Senate race in 2006.

Steele was born on October 19, 1958, at Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George`s County. He spent his childhood in the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest Washington,D.C. which Steele has described as a small, stable and racially integrated community that insulated him from some of the problems elsewhere in the city.

Steele grew up in a Democratic household. However, as a young man he switched to the Republican Party.

Katon Edwards Dawson (born Feb 29, 1956) is an American politician from the state of South Carolina, current chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party and was a 2009 candidate for chairman of the Republican National Committee.

In August 2007 Dawson drew national attention for his decision to move the 2008 South Carolina Republican presidential primary from Feb. 2 to January 29, preserving the state's "first in the South" primary. In every election since 1980, the winner of the South Carolina primary has won the Republican presidential nomination.