Zwift sanctions Ironman athlete for ‘Digital Doping’ issues
Zwift has suspended eSports access for British Ironman athlete Lizi Duncombe after a data-referencing dispute. Zwift’s latest communication on the matter of digital cheating concerns Duncombe who recently turned pro following her success in being 1st overall in the women age-group field at both Ironman Argentina 140.6 and Oman 70.3 .
A Zwift data analysis showed irregularities in her submitted data relating to certain power files references for a race back in September to which Zwift have applied a Tier 3 sanction (“Bringing the sport into disrepute” – “Fabrication or modification of any data”) resulting in Duncombe being banned from competing on its platform, for six months, backdated to the date of the alleged offence.
it’s certainly not unusual to read “cyclist” and “doping” in the same headline. But in this case, we’re presented with the unique position of an athlete being sanctioned for something they did in a virtual tournament.
For those not familiar with the world of virtual reality cycling, Zwift is an online gamified bike training platform in which real-world riders’ race against each other in virtual reality. To participate in Zwift you need a few things, a bike, a “smart trainer” which you attach your bike to, a paid subscription to Zwift, and a device capable of running it. (It can be run on desktop, iOS, or Android).
Typically, Zwift is used by hardcore amateurs to train in a virtual world on rainy days, but pro riders also use it to train for real world races – leading to unexpected results. To eliminate cheating the power data from a rider’s smart turbo trainer needs to be validated by a secondary power source namely a power meter. And it is here that the story unfolds.
Saris x Strava Winter Miles Challenge
The Duncombe investigation was triggered by a fourth-place she received for a Zwift Racing League Women’s Qualifier event, on 17 September. Upon closer interrogation of Duncombe’s submitted data, a series of inconsistencies were revealed. The Zwift Accuracy and Data Analysis deemed that Duncombe, a Ironman certified coach, was not using a power meter as her reference data source having failed to record her entire race with the secondary data source; merely provided 90 seconds of data of her warm-up as the verification data. There was also significant timing discrepancy with her support data file, too.
In coming to its verdict, the Zwift Performance Verification Board decision outlined that they “consider that it is beyond reasonable doubt that the rider did not correctly dual-record their ride” and that “the FIT file provided by the rider as evidence of them having dual-recorded their ride was edited after the event” and it was “a deliberate action to fabricate evidence” Full Zwift Board report can be found here: Zwift Performance Verification Board Decision .
In sanctioning Duncombe from competing on its platform, for six months. Zwift has admitted that these data reference sourcing issues could have been a case of ignorance or technical naivety from Duncombe, it has nevertheless decided to annul her result. She is allowed to use Zwift as a virtual training tool, but will be suspended from racing in any eSports event on the platform until 20 March 2021.
With digital racing now becoming a meaningful competitive outlet, with prize money, the possibility of file manipulation was perhaps inevitable. So, it’s good to see Zwift being on top of thier game with ‘digital doping’ in attempting to enact protocols that discourage data manipulation for gain. As with all gaming systems they can be prone to being ‘hacked’ and in some cases quite easily. For example, by under-reporting your weight you can gain a power to weight ratio improvement with no effort or you can use “bots” to increase your power or ride for you.
All things considered; this case probably shouldn’t come as all that surprising. In a recent blog, Lizi Duncombe said “Virtual races seem to be a theme of 2020 so i’m digging my teeth in!” It appears she certainly did that, in more ways than one!
