Liza Marie Hunter-Galvan (born 25 June 1969 in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

) is a New Zealand long-distance runner. She qualified to run the Women's Marathon in both the 2004 Athens Olympic Games as well as the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

. She resides in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and has won the Marathon of the Americas on four occasions. During her collegiate career she competed for UTSA and won the 1992 SLC Cross Country individual title, helping lead the Roadrunners to their second of three straight league crowns, and also qualified for the

NCAA Championships The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

. In August 2009, Hunter-Galvan admitted to taking the banned performance-enhancing substance EPO three times in her career, all of which were in 2009, after failing a drug test on March 23, 2009. She was banned from competition for two years starting May 2009. Hunter-Galvan publicly apologized for her mistake and never sought to represent New Zealand again. After the two-year hiatus, Hunter-Galvan was able to return to the sport in 2011 and competed at the

Rock 'n Roll Marathon where she ran a career best 2 hours, 29 minutes, 37 seconds. Hunter-Galvan completed her 24-year running career by winning the woman's 2016 San Antonio Rock 'n Roll Marathon with a time of 2 hours, 57 minutes and 17 seconds. Hunter-Galvan is still listed on the New Zealand Olympics roll of honour. In 2018, Hunter-Galvan was indicted for

welfare fraud Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

in San Antonio, Texas. The charges were subsequently dropped after Hunter-Galvan entered into negotiations and agreed to a plea bargain where she paid an amount in restitution.

Achievements

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter-Galvan, Liza 1969 births Living people Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Doping cases in athletics New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in the United States New Zealand female long-distance runners New Zealand sportspeople in doping cases Olympic athletes for New Zealand Athletes from Auckland Track and field athletes from San Antonio University of Texas at San Antonio alumni