Influencer Matt Choi Banned From New York City Marathon For Running With E-Bikes

Matt Choi has crossed his final New York Marathon finish line. 

The running influencer has been banned from the New York City Marathon for life after running in the annual race Nov. 3 while being followed by two E-Bikes with people filming him. 

“After a review and due to violations of World Athletics rules, and New York Road Runners’ Code of Conduct and Rules of Competition,” a Nov. 5 statement from the organization who runs the marathon reads, per Runner’s World, “NYRR has disqualified Matt Choi from the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon and removed him from the results. He has been banned from any future NYRR races.”

Later, the Austin, Texas-based runner—who has over 800,000 followers across his social media accounts—shared a statement reacting to his ban. 

“I f--ked up,” Choi—whose disqualified marathon time was just over two hours and 57 minutes—said in a Nov. 5 Instagram video. “This wasn’t a video I was planning on making, but I have no excuses. Full stop. I was selfish on Sunday to have my brother and videographer follow me around on the course on E-bikes and it had serious consequences.”

Indeed, the influencer echoed sentiments of other online users who complained about his behavior at the annual New York running event, including those sharing how bikers impeded other marathon runners.

“We endangered other runners,” he continued. “We impacted people going for PBs, we blocked people from getting water. With the New York City Marathon being about everyone else and being about the community—I made it about myself. For anyone I impacted, I’m sorry.”

The 29-year-old emphasized that he was the only one to blame for the controversy—not his brother nor his videographer. 

“I got overzealous about getting all the shots,” he added, noting that he wouldn’t try to appeal the decision, “I made my bed so I’m going to lay in it. This isn’t the first time being called out on using E-Bikes to shoot content, but it won’t happen again. My word is my bond.” 

Although Choi had run in the 2023 Austin Marathon with E-Bike filming—and received backlash at the time—he emphasized in his recent video's caption, “E-Bikes don’t belong in races.”