Lisa and Anna competed in the women's marathon event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Lisa and Anna finished the marathon together but at a time 15 minutes below their personal bests. Thomas Kurschilgen, the German athletics director, criticised their joint (81/82nd) finish publicly, but the picture was valued by the media. They were accused of trying to attract media attention and they did get more coverage than their teammate, Anja Scherl, who finished ahead of them. The twins said that it was Anna's idea. When she realised that with two kilometres to go that she might capture Lisa, then she accelerated to catch her.