Strava, the globally popular exercise tracking application, has undertaken a massive purge of its database, deleting a staggering 3.5 million suspicious activity records. This decisive action comes in response to widespread cheating by amateur athletes attempting to fraudulently climb the app's internal leaderboards.
The Scale of the Deception
The fitness platform, which boasts approximately 180 million users worldwide, identified numerous instances of dishonest behaviour. Athletes were found recording rides taken on electric e-bikes as traditional pedal bike activities, while others posted 'runs' that were actually completed by cycling or even travelling in a car. These manipulations allowed users to achieve artificially high rankings on segment leaderboards, undermining the integrity of Strava's competitive features.
Virtual Trophies and Stolen Glory
Strava's system awards virtual trophies and ranks users according to their performance times on specific routes, known as segments. The most coveted prize is the 'King or Queen of the Mountain' (KOM) status, granted to the fastest athlete on any given segment. The recent cheating scandal has seen numerous individuals falsely claim these prestigious titles.
Tom Davidson, a senior reporter at Cycling Weekly, emphasised the psychological significance of these digital accolades. 'For a lot of people, it's the best title they can go for,' he told The Times. 'I have one KOM in all my years of riding. It's a tiny hill near my dad's house and it's sacred to me. I was never a racing cyclist; it's the only title or crown I've won as a cyclist and it feels special.'
Davidson further described the anxiety that accompanies holding a KOM: 'When you have a KOM you live in a dread that someone will beat it and you get a notification on your phone that someone has taken it away from you.' This emotional investment highlights why some users resort to dishonest means to acquire and maintain these virtual honours.
Strava's Global Crackdown
A spokesperson for Strava detailed the company's response on its Reddit page, stating: 'Over the past few weeks, we reprocessed the top 100 activities on each of all ride segment leaderboards to address long-standing issues with anomalous activities showing up in results. This wasn't a small tweak — it was a full global backfill aimed at problems many of you have been pointing out.' The exact number of deleted activities originating from the UK remains unclear.
The Rise of 'Running Mules'
This data purge follows previous reports by the Daily Mail exposing another form of cheating on the platform. Lazy runners have been paying individuals, colloquially termed 'running mules,' to complete routes on their behalf. These mules then provide the activity data for the payee to upload to their personal Strava account, falsely claiming the exercise as their own.
One such mule, identifying himself as Gil, a 45-year-old Belgian national residing in the UK, explained his service. He sends data from completed runs to clients who upload it to their Strava profiles. When questioned about the motivation behind using such services, Gil cited 'Social pressure, FOMO [fear of missing out], dream of a life you can't have…bragging for credentials, telling the wife you were out for a run while you were in the pub.'
Meanwhile, another runner, apparently based in the United States, has been promoting similar mule services on TikTok. Claiming over a year of experience, he explained: 'So, basically someone will pay me to run a race with their Strava account on my phone.' Clients either grant him direct access to their Strava accounts or provide him with their smartphone or smartwatch to carry during the run.
Strava has been contacted for further comment regarding these ongoing integrity issues within its fitness community. The removal of 3.5 million records represents one of the most significant anti-cheating measures in the app's history, aiming to restore fairness to its competitive leaderboards.
