Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 124, November 2019 | Page 26

SPORT MAN
Says
By
Manfred Seidler
Tainted By Association
By now virtually everyone who is involved in some shape, fashion or form in running will have heard of the collapse of
the Nike Oregon Project, or NOP, under the guidance of Alberto Salazar, and it once again shows the dangers for athletes
being associated with a tainted coach or manager.
A
lberto Salazar is notorious for trying to push the envelope. He would do tests
on athletes, even his own son, to see what he can give them in terms of
what at best could be called frowned upon substances, and at worst, illegal
substances... and how far he could push this before these substances would show
up in a positive drug test. Salazar would force his athletes to take medication to lose
weight. He even experimented on himself. Nothing, and no-one, was sacred.
in 2017 and winning Olympic Silver in the 10,000m in London in 2012... behind
winner Farah, his training partner in those days. Both Farah and Rupp have had to
do damage control due to the fall-out surrounding Salazar’s accusation and now
banning, starting back in 2015 when the investigation into Salazar began. Both have
continually claimed that while they believed in Salazar, they have always stood for
clean sport, and have never taken any PEDS (Performance-enhancing drugs).
But the NOP experiment exposed an ugly underbelly of sport. Not only did Salazar
experiment on athletes, he stayed in regular contact with his ‘employer’ and
sponsor, Nike, and updated them on exactly what was going on. To make matters
worse, the CEO of Nike was fully behind Salazar.
However, there were voices of dissent. The most vocal and anti-Salazar/NOP
activist was Kara Goucher, who suffered the humiliation of Salazar’s methods for
years and eventually became the whistle-blower as the United States Anti-Doping
Agency (USADA) spent four years investigating Salazar. A few months ago, this
eventually led to him being banned from coaching for four years, and effectively
shutting down the NOP project. Subsequently, Goucher has called for all samples
of Salazar’s athletes to be retested, including her own.
Too Good to be Clean?
Amongst the athletes that Salazar coached were Mo Farah (Great Britian), Galen
Rupp (USA) and more recently Konstance Klosterhalfen (Germany) and Sifan Hassan
(Netherlands). Under Salazar, Farah went from an average 5000/10,000m athlete to
an unbeatable four-time Olympic gold medallist and six-time World Champion. Rupp
became America’s latest marathon sensation after winning the Chicago Marathon
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ISSUE 124 NOVEMBER 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
Klosterhalfen joined Salazar in 2018 and improved dramatically in a relatively
short period of time, going from 4:06 for 1500m in 2018 to 3:59 in 2019. She won
the bronze medal in the 5000m at this year’s World Championships in a time of
14:28.43. To be fair, she was always an incredible talent, but the association with
Salazar has led to all sorts of questions being asked.
Hassan pulled off an incredible double at the 2019 World Champs, winning the
10,000m and 1500m titles. The first was won in 30:17.62 and the latter in 3:51.95,
Mo Farah
(Wikimedia)
South Africans will probably remember Salazar best for his win in the 1994
Comrades Marathon. Latest reports point to him already experimenting with
testosterone in those years, but to quell the discussion immediately about possibly
rescinding that victory, it is a bit late to try test him and find him guilty. The only
way he could be stripped of his Comrades title is if documented proof comes to
light that he was indeed doping at the time, or he admits to doping before that
run. (For the hypothetical record, that would see Nick Bester elevated to winner, to
claim his second win.)