Handling photo match disputes

What is a dispute?

An athlete telling us a photo matched to them is not them. It opens a case on your event's dispute console with the photo and the claim attached.

This is different from reviewing flagged photos. A flag says "this photo is a problem": unsafe, unflattering, wrongly published. A dispute says "this is the wrong person", which is a matching question, and the two need different answers.

Why does it reach me?

Because it is your event and your gallery. You know the field, the wave, and the bib block. When a dispute turns on whether bib 412 was in the 10K, you can answer it and we cannot.

What are the outcomes?

A dispute is open until it is decided, and then it is one of:

• Upheld. The athlete was right; the match was wrong. The photo stops being theirs.
• Overturned. The match was correct and stands.

An athlete can also withdraw a dispute themselves, usually after finding the photo genuinely is them.

Both decided states are final. Decide from the evidence rather than the volume of the complaint.

How do I decide a hard one?

Three things resolve nearly all of them:

1. Check the bib in the photo against the roster. Digits get misread on wet or creased cloth, and 6s, 8s, and 3s account for most of it.
2. Check the time. A photo timestamped well outside the athlete's window is unlikely to be them.
3. Check the distance. Series events reuse numbers across races; the same bib can legitimately be two people.

If it was a misread bib, fix the bib on the entry too, or the same dispute returns next time matching runs.

Does a dispute affect a purchase?

If someone bought a photo that turns out not to be them, refund it. See how to refund a photo purchase. Uphold the dispute and leave the purchase standing and you will hear about it again.

How quickly should I respond?

Within a few days. An open dispute is an athlete who thinks your race got something wrong about them, and it is the cheapest reputational fix you have.