An article in Monday’s edition of Al Jazeera, which aimed to illustrate the financial challenges aspiring Olympic athletes face, left followers of the elite running scene puzzled. It misleads readers to believe that Ashley Uhl-Leavitt, a 36-year-old personal trainer from Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., would compete in this summer’s Olympic Games, as falsely portrayed by Uhl-Leavitt’s friend Audrey Maheu in a GoFundMe campaign; however, the American women going to Paris for the Olympic marathon were already determined at the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in February, and they do not include Uhl-Leavitt.
But, Maheu’s GoFundMe tells a different story. Maheu launched the crowdfunding page in March with the aim of “helping our friend and coworker, Ashley, run in the Paris Olympics,” adding that she and another friend plan to accompany Uhl-Leavitt to support her race. Maheu goes on to misinform readers, saying, “the exciting news regarding Ashley’s amazing opportunity to race in the summer games has began to spread and supporters have inquired about how to help our girl get across the finish line in Paris in less than six months”. To date, Maheu has raised USD $1,310 toward her goal of $5,000.
Al Jazeera picked the story up, reporting that Uhl-Leavitt had “a chance to compete in the 2024 Olympic Games.” The article ascribes to Uhl-Leavitt the status of an elite athlete, stating, “Training for this high level of athletics is a full-time job…Uhl-Leavitt is one of the many athletes over the years who turned to alternative means to finance their Olympic journey.” The article points readers to Uhl-Leavitt’s GoFundMe page to help her “offset the costs of getting to the games.” Similarly, in an article by Essentially Sports, Uhl-Leavitt was described as a “New York City marathon legend…who recently qualified for the Olympics.” Uhl-Leavitt ran 4:54:20 at the 2022 New York City Marathon.
Maheu says that “donations received will go towards expenses such as airfare, lodging, registration fees, potential bond money to post bail for our Paris shenanigans, and other various expenses involved in Ashley chasing down this dream.” This isn’t the first time Maheu has used GoFundMe to fund athletic endeavors. In 2017 she raised USD $7,183 to travel to and compete in the Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
U.S. female marathoners’ journey to qualify for the Paris Olympic marathon involved, first, qualifying for the U.S. 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials, by running 2:37:00 on an eligible course between Jan. 1, 2022 and Dec. 5, 2023. Only the top three finishers were selected, and they needed to achieve the Olympic “A” standard of 2:26:50, either at the trials or during the qualification window, which closed April 30. The top three finishers at the trials were Fiona O’Keeffe (who ran 2:25:312:22:10), U.S. marathon and half-marathon record holder Emily Sisson (2:22:42) and Dakota Lindwurm (2:25:31).
Uhl-Leavitt has been competing in marathons since 2018, and has a personal best of four hours and change. The event she plans to run is the mass-participation race at the Olympic marathon (the first of its kind, where amateur runners will be allowed to run the same course, behind the elite fields), which was determined by lottery; the lottery was open to runners worldwide who met the qualifications, which include earning points by recording physical activity using the official app. There is no standard qualifying time for the mass event.
On Feb. 9, Uhl-Leavitt revealed on Instagram that she had won her bib for the race. Later in May, Uhl-Leavitt shared a photo from Vernazza, Italy, where she landed after running 16 miles through three countries (France, Monaco and Italy) as a part of her training for August’s mass participation race. Next on her list: Paris.
