Strava removes 6.5 million “impossible” performances from leaderboards

Is the popular fitness tracking app finally taking the necessary steps to catch cheaters?

You know that time you “accidentally” uploaded your bike ride as a run on Strava and found yourself launched to the top of the segment leaderboard? Well, the Strava police are out to get you. On Tuesday, the fitness tracking service introduced an upgraded algorithm to pre-emptively remove performances that are a little too good–including your impressive (and very impossible) three-minute mile run. The app also revealed they’ll be erasing 6,500,000 suspicious uploads from existing leaderboards upfront.

With 85 million segment efforts uploaded daily to the app, inspecting each performance thoroughly is hopeless. The service relies heavily on its users to report inaccurate or suspicious results in addition to its current filtration system, but millions of “impossible” activities still make their way past these existing lines of defence onto the leaderboard top 10. The new auto-flagging system is set to detect segment performances that are a little too good to be true before they even reach the leaderboards.

“This is BS! I was 30 seconds off [Kelvin] Kiptum’s world record and I only had to change tires once.” one user joked on Reddit.

Runs that are obviously completed on a bike and rides that are clearly logged from a car or e-bike will be the first to go. Strava runners have found the app’s uploads increasingly demoralizing–imagine running a mile-long segment in a best time of 4:30, only to find all 10 runs in the leaderboard are sub-four minutes and completed at a heart rate of 110 BPM.

Strava users have raised doubts on how thorough and effective this new algorithm will be–the service had already advertised upgrades to the flagging system in September and last year, but leaderboards saw little improvement. “This was announced over a year ago already and from what I can see, nothing has changed,” one user wrote. Numerous comments also address the need for an in-app flagging function; currently, Strava only allows users to flag suspicious activities through a web browser.

Other users are ecstatic at the chance to have an honest leaderboard and an actual shot at claiming the Local Legend title. “Yea Strava!” one user wrote. “Thanks for the acknowledgment and efforts to straighten out the issue. A big task to deal with, I know.”

“Brilliant news,” another comment reads. “If this also sorts out the challenges at the same time, that will encourage me to enter them again. Too many are blatantly cheating.”

Strava acknowledged they won’t be able to catch 100 per cent of cheaters, but says the added layer of filtration will help ensure that authentic performances and users get the recognition and the “kudos” they deserve.

posted Wednesday December 4th
by Cameron Ormond