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Oct 2, 2019
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Nike coach Salazar gets four-year ban for doping violations

By
Reuters
Published
Oct 2, 2019

​American Alberto Salazar, who has coached some of the world’s top distance runners including Olympic and world champion Mo Farah, has been banned for four years for doping violations.


Alberto Salazar - Reuters


The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said Salazar’s punishment was for “orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct” as head coach of the Nike Oregon Project (NOP), a camp designed primarily to develop U.S. endurance athletes.

Endocrinologist Jeffrey Brown, who worked for NOP on performance enhancement and served as a physician for numerous athletes in the training program, also received a four-year ban.

The USADA report also cited emails showing that Nike Inc Chief Executive Mark Parker was made aware of experiments by Brown involving AndroGel, a topical testosterone cream that is banned.

Nike, one of the world’s biggest sportswear brands which counts many high-profile runners among its sponsored athletes, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on communications between Brown and Parker.

A Wall Street Journal report quoted a Nike spokesperson who said Salazar was concerned runners “could be sabotaged by someone rubbing testosterone cream on them.”

Salazar was quickly stripped of his accreditation for the world athletics championships in Doha at the request of the U.S. track and field federation, IAAF, the sport’s international governing body, said in a statement.

Salazar, who was a celebrated distance runner, winning three consecutive New York City marathons starting in 1980, vowed to appeal USADA’s decision. Nike said in a statement it would stand by him.

“I am shocked by the outcome today,” Salazar said in a statement. “My athletes and I have endured unjust, unethical and highly damaging treatment from USADA.”

“The Oregon Project has never and will never permit doping. I will appeal and look forward to this unfair and protracted process reaching the conclusion I know to be true. I will not be commenting further at this time,” the statement concluded.

On Tuesday, Farah said he was relieved that the investigation was over. “I have no tolerance for anyone who breaks the rules or crosses a line,” he said.

UK Athletics said in a statement that its own investigation in 2015, which cleared Farah to work with Salazar, was “restricted to the interaction of the Nike Oregon Project with Mo Farah and not an anti-doping investigation.”

Salazar stopped coaching Farah in 2017, when the runner decided to move back to England. Farah said at the time that the doping investigation was not the reason they parted ways.

USADA said Salazar, who also coached American Olympian Matthew Centrowitz among other top distance runners, trafficked banned performance-enhancing substance testosterone to multiple athletes. Salazar also tampered or attempted to tamper with NOP athletes’ doping control process, the agency said after concluding its four-year investigation.

NIKE CEO EMAILS

Brown had emailed Nike CEO Parker a decade ago about experiments on what levels of AndroGel would trigger “concern,” the USADA investigation found.
“We need to determine the minimal amount of gel that would cause a problem,” he wrote in an email dated July 7, 2009.

Parker responded, “(it) will be interesting to determine the minimal amount of topical male hormone required to create a positive test.”

Several members of NOP are competing in the world championships, including newly-crowned 10,000m champion Sifan Hassan.

“I am shocked to receive the news of today’s ruling, especially during this time in which I am fully preparing for my next race in the world championships in Doha,” the Dutch runner said in a statement.

“This investigation is focussed on the period before I joined the Oregon Project and therefore has no relation to me,” Hassan added.

None of the athletes Salazar has worked with were mentioned in Monday’s report.
“The athletes in these cases found the courage to speak out and ultimately exposed the truth,” USADA CEO Travis Tygart said in a statement.

“While acting in connection with the Nike Oregon Project, Mr. Salazar and Dr. Brown demonstrated that winning was more important than the health and wellbeing of the athletes they were sworn to protect,” Tygart added.

Salazar said he had never put winning above the athletes’ safety. “This is completely false and contrary to the findings of the arbitrators, who even wrote about the care I took in complying with the World Anti-Doping code,” he said.

Nike, which funds NOP - the nation’s most elite long-distance running training centre in Portland under a $460 million, 26-year sponsorship deal with US Track and Field - said it would support Salazar’s appeal.

“Today’s decision had nothing to do with administering banned substances to any Oregon Project athlete. As the panel noted, they were struck by the amount of care Alberto took to ensure he was complying with the World Anti-Doping code,” it said.

“Nike does not condone the use of banned substances in any manner.”

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