Tuesday, July 27, 2021
“No abuse tolerated”
Lifetime suspension for athletics coach
A celebrated runner in the early 1980s, Alberto Salazar later led the Nike Oregon Project. In 2019 he will be banned for four years for allegedly trading in banned substances. Now a lifelong ban follows. He is said to have abused his runners emotionally and physically.
The American “SafeSport” center has banned athletics trainer Alberto Salazar for life because of sexual and emotional misconduct. The 62-year-old has ten days to appeal this decision, it said. The center never gives details of investigations into cases.
The US Athletics Federation USATF has updated Salazar’s status in its database of disciplinary incidents. “No form of abuse will ever be tolerated in our sport and we will put the emotional and physical security of athletes above all else,” the association said.
In 2019, runners from Salazar’s training group such as Mary Cain, Kara Goucher and Amy Yoder Begley accused him of having been emotionally and physically abused by him. The US coach headed the Nike Oregon Project for athletes for many years, which closed in October 2019.
Salazar, who won the Boston and New York marathons in the early 1980s and later coached Olympic medalists such as Mo Farah and Galen Rupp, initially failed to respond to an AP request for comment.
The American anti-doping agency banned Salazar for four years in September 2019. While no athlete who trained under him ever tested positive for a prohibited substance, the USADA found that Salazar had manipulated doping controls and traded in prohibited substances, including testosterone. The native Cuban denied the allegations and appealed to the International Court of Justice. The CAS has not yet made a decision.
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