Have you ever dreamt of standing on top one of the Seven Summits, swimming across the Atlantic Ocean or winning a marathon? So did the people below. But instead of following through, they tricked people into believing they accomplished their goals.
Here are the top 5 hoaxes of all time.
1. Mount McKinley
When Dr. Frederick Cook’s team turned back from their summit attempt on Mount McKinley in 1906, Cook soldiered on with fellow adventurer, Ed Barrill. Cook claimed he and Barrill had reached the summit, becoming the first people to do so, but the other members of his expedition were skeptical. Since their alleged triumph, climbers have re-created every photograph Cook took; none of them were taken from the summit.
2. The Great Atlantic Ocean Swim
On Februaury 8th 2009, reports about the 56-year-old women from Aspen who swam across the Atlantic Ocean flooded news outlets across the USA. A story was issued which said that Jennifer Figge swam 2,100 miles from the Cape Verde Islands to the Caribbean’s Trinidad—in 25 days. Figge would have had to average 84 miles per day, or 3.4 miles per hour for 25 days straight to do so. In this case, faulty reporting created the hoax; Figge, who swam about 250 miles across the Atlantic, later said she “never intended to swim the Atlantic.”
3. Rosie Ruiz’s Boston Marathon Win
In 1980, a 23-year-old New Yorker won the Boston Marathon crossing the line in just under 2 hours and 32 minutes. But the win was strange; nobody remembered seeing her during the race, and she didn’t seem too sore or sweaty when she broke the tape. Marathon fans came forward to expose Ruiz’s con: she jumped out of the crowd half-a-mile before the finish line.
It wasn’t Ruiz’s first run-in with cheating. She rode the subway to a fifth-place finish in the New York City Marathon the year before, qualifying her for Boston.
4. Cerro Torre Hoax
Feb. 3, 1959. Italian Alpinist Cesare Maestri supposedly rappelled off Argentine Patagonia’s Cerro Torre, a 10,262-foot mountain said to be the hardest in the world to climb. Maestri’s teammate, Toni Egger, died in an avalanche on the mountain, taking the camera with photographic proof of the ascent with him, Maestri said. His achievement is still questioned today, though several climbers say there is no evidence on the mountain of Maestri’s route.
5. Sail Around the World
In the fall of 1968, British businessman, Donald Crowhurst, set sail from England in The Sunday Times Golden Global Race, the world’s first single-handed, nonstop, around-the-world sailboat race. Though he designed navigation devices, Crowhurst was an inexperienced sailor and a failing businessman. Facing the humiliation of failure, he hid in the South Atlantic for weeks, faking radio silence, and then announced himself the leader. Then he truly disappeared and has not been found since. A very sad end to this story.
Post if you have heard of any other good hoaxes!
Portwest 
An additional great update.