January 20, 2026 NEW YORK, NY The Winter Olympics might be heading to Italy next month, but New York City just hosted a gold-medal performance of its own—underground.
In a display of athletic prowess that was as impressive as it was illegal, a group of "athletes" turned Manhattan’s Broadway-Lafayette Street station into a stadium for the inaugural Fare Evasion Olympics. The target? The MTA’s brand-new, high-tech glass gates that were supposed to be the "unbeatable" solution to the city’s billion-dollar fare-beating problem.
The Spectacle: High Stakes and Low Fares
The event, captured by "The Danny Fisher Show" and posted to Instagram on Jan. 17, featured a team of incredibly fit participants putting the $1.2 billion MTA initiative to the ultimate test. Clad in athletic gear, the "competitors" were seen meticulously stretching before launching into a series of acrobatic leaps and climbs over the transparent barriers.
As the crowd roared, Fisher—acting as a play-by-play sportscaster—shouted into his microphone: “I’ve never seen anything like it! They’ve installed new state-of-the-art turnstiles really to challenge our competitors.”
The prize for this underground decathlon? A giant, ceremonial check for exactly $3.00—the cost of a single subway ride. The "champion" jokingly announced he would use his winnings for a celebratory trip to Brooklyn.
A Billion-Dollar Problem
While the video has social media users in stitches, the reality for the MTA is far more somber. In 2024 alone, the agency lost nearly $1 billion in revenue due to fare and toll evasion.
The new glass gates, which are currently being rolled out to 20 stations across the boroughs, were designed to be a deterrent. Unlike the old-school metal turnstiles, these taller, swinging doors are meant to provide a more modern—and secure—entry point. However, the "Olympic" footage shows that for those with enough upper-body strength, the barriers are little more than a hurdle.
The Tech vs. The Hustle
What makes the video particularly telling is the technology’s response. When a rider breaches the gates without paying, a loud alarm—famously compared to the "X" buzzer on Family Feud—is supposed to blare. During the "Olympics," only one of the three red lights flashed as the competitors soared over, while the others remained a mocking green.
MTA workers were spotted on camera watching the event, with some even taking out their own phones to record the spectacle.
