Alberto Salazar, the legendary American distance coach who guided Mo Farah to six world titles and four Olympic gold medals, has been sent home from the world championships in Doha following his four-year ban for doping violations. The US Anti-Doping Agency found that Salazar had been “orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct” while head coach of the Nike Oregon Project, a group that was initially set up to help US endurance athletes beat the best runners from Africa but later recruited Farah and others from around the world.
Farah, who trained with Salazar from 2010 until 2017, admitted he was happy the investigation had finally concluded. “I’m relieved that Usada has, after four years, completed their investigation into Alberto Salazar,” he said in a statement. “I left the Nike Oregon Project in 2017 but as I’ve always said, I have no tolerance for anyone who breaks the rules or crosses a line. A ruling has been made and I’m glad there has finally been a conclusion.”
Salazar was found by an arbitration panel to have trafficked testosterone – a banned performance-enhancing substance – to multiple athletes, administered a prohibited IV infusion, and also tampered or attempted to tamper with Nike Oregon Project athletes’ doping control process.
Jeffrey Brown, who worked as a paid consultant endocrinologist for Nike on performance enhancement and served as a physician for many of Salazar’s athletes, also received a four-year ban. In a statement, Travis Tygart, the CEO of US Anti-Doping, praised the numerous whistleblowers who had come forward and condemned Salazar and Brown’s behaviour.
“The athletes in these cases found the courage to speak out and ultimately exposed the truth,” he added. “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.”
The IAAF, athletics’ governing body, later confirmed that it had “deactivated” his accreditation. But the 61-year-old Salazar who watched one of his athletes, Sifan Hassan, win the 10,000m gold earlier this week, said he was “shocked” by the outcome and would appeal against it. “The Oregon Project has never and will never permit doping,” he said. “I will appeal and look forward to this unfair and protracted process reaching the conclusion I know to be true.”
“Throughout this six-year investigation my athletes and I have endured unjust, unethical and highly damaging treatment from Usada,” he added. “This is demonstrated by the misleading statement released by Travis Tygart stating that we put winning ahead of athlete 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.”
Farah was with Salazar for nearly seven years during which time he went from being just outside elite level to virtually unbeatable. He stuck with his famed coach after allegations against Salazar first surfaced in a BBC and ProPublica report in 2015 and only left in 2017. At the time, Farah denied his decision was connected to the doping claims. Usada first brought doping charges against Salazar and Brown in June 2017 in a court battle that was heard behind closed doors.
One of the BBC and Propublica’s key whistleblowers, Steve Magness, who worked as Salazar’s assistant, tweeted after Usada’s statement: “Tell the truth. Own your mistakes. Choose the difficult path. In the short term, it might feel horrible, but over the long haul it’s the only path to take. Speak up, stay true to your convictions. None of us are perfect. But we can all aspire to be better.”
Nick Willis, a two-time Olympic medalist over 1500m, also said he was delighted at the news. “Justice. I’m tired of having to hide my thoughts. The charade is finally over. Our sport will be much better off with Alberto gone.”
Meanwhile, Nike said that it would back Salazar’s appeal and that Usada’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. We support Alberto in his decision to appeal and wish him the full measure of due process that the rules require. Nike does not condone the use of banned substances in any manner.”
In a statement UK Athletics defended its decision to stick with Salazar after revelations against him first surfaced in 2015. “It should be noted that at all times UK Athletics fully cooperated with both Usada and Ukad throughout the investigations,” it added. “Furthermore the performance oversight committee’s own investigation in 2015 was restricted to the interaction of the Nike Oregon Project with Mo Farah. and not an anti-doping investigation. Such investigations can and should only be undertaken by the relevant anti-doping authorities.
“UK Athletics is 100% committed to clean athletics through investment in athlete education, supporting comprehensive testing programmes, and full cooperation with both UK and international anti-doping authorities.”