The video is going viral. Tommy Fury, British boxer and TV personality, bursts into a powerful final sprint and crosses the finish line. Then comes the Instagram post, in which he proudly claims to have “completed” the “T100 French Riviera” triathlon, covering 100 kilometers, with only 10 days of training. Newspapers pick up the story, he receives thousands of compliments, and the clip of his sprint finish gathers 280,000 likes. A fantastic story—except that it turned out to be false.
The race
The T100 French Riviera is a triathlon held in the Saint-Raphaël and Fréjus area, on the French Riviera. It consists of 2 kilometers of open-water swimming, 80 kilometers of cycling, and 18 kilometers of running. It’s a spectacular event that combines top-level professional competition with stunning scenery and a rich program also open to amateurs.
Who is Tommy Fury?
Best known as the younger brother of former heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury, Tommy is himself a professional boxer. However, his performances in the ring have never brought him close to glory. So far, he has fought and won 11 bouts, all against extremely modest opposition, with his two most famous fights being narrow points victories against former YouTubers Jake Paul and KSI. Fury gained further notoriety when he appeared on the reality show Love Island in 2019.
Fury did not “complete” the race
A closer look reveals that Tommy Fury’s claim to have “completed” the race is highly misleading. The British athlete’s GPS, which tracks real-time progress along the course, stopped recording data after just 48 kilometers of the bike leg.
The official results of the competition leave no room for doubt. Anyone searching for Tommy Fury’s time on the Sportstats website will not find it, as next to his name appears the acronym DNF, meaning Did Not Finish, which is assigned to participants who fail to complete the race under the established rules.
Why did Fury cross the finish line anyway?
So how did Tommy manage to reach the final finish line if he hadn’t completed the cycling stage? The answer was provided by the PTO (Professional Triathletes Organisation), which organized the event: athletes who were unable to cover the full 80 kilometers on the bike before the roads reopened to traffic were still allowed to take part in the final run, so they could fully enjoy the experience.
The Fury brothers lying to be celebrated
There is absolutely nothing wrong with failing to finish such an exhausting and demanding race, especially for an athlete who competes professionally in a completely different sport. What is reprehensible, however, is trying to convince the public that he achieved something extraordinary, shamelessly twisting the facts.
Tommy Fury’s “stunt” recalls the bold promise of his brother Tyson, who on the eve of his first fight against Deontay Wilder declared he would donate his entire purse to the homeless. Fury later claimed several times that he kept his word and donated £7 million to charities, but he has never provided any documentary evidence or disclosed the specific names of the organizations.
Telling tall tales in front of the cameras just to be applauded seems to run in the family. Luckily, not everyone falls for it: in recent days, Tommy Fury’s public posts have been flooded with negative comments from those who know the truth and accuse him of lying to his fans.
