Distance running trainer Alberto Salazar was declared permanently ineligible by the US SafeSport Center on Wednesday, completing the dramatic fall of the sport’s most famous trainer, long backed financially by Nike.
Salazar, 63, will not be allowed to participate in any event organized by or under the auspices of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee or any national sports governing body.
he Suspended by SafeSport in early 2020 and managed Permanently unavailable in July It was a decision Salazar appealed, which SafeSport said was emotional abuse and sexual misconduct. By SafeSport discipline database, Salazar’s ban is for sexual misconduct, suggesting that he successfully appealed the emotional abuse charge, but not the sexual misconduct charge. SafeSport declined to comment.
It is not known for which offenses or offenses Salazar was barred. SafeSport, an independent agency that handles cases of abuse and misconduct in Olympic sports, does not disclose its decisions. Salazar’s lawyer, Maurice Suh, did not respond to a request for comment.
For nearly four decades, Salazar has been at the forefront of the American running. He won marathons in New York and Boston in the 1980s and competed in the 1984 Olympics. In the early 2000s, he founded the Nike Oregon Project, funded by Nike and headquartered in Beaverton, Ore, which sought to increase American competitiveness in distance running.
Salazar’s downfall began in 2019, when an independent arbitral tribunal approved a ban against him by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. He appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and the ban was lifted after a long delay due to the coronavirus. Approved in September. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Salazar had testosterone; accomplice of a doctor administering inappropriate infusion of L-carnitine, a substance that converts fat into energy; and tampered with the doping control process.
Shortly after Salazar was suspended in 2019, several female runners he coached came forward to accuse him of emotional abuse and obesity. Mary Kabul accused her of embarrassing her for her weight in front of other team members and Amy Yoder BegleyOne Olympian said Salazar verbally abused her and kicked her out of the Nike Oregon Project for having “the biggest ass on the starting line”, among other accusations of mischief. Cain also sued Salazar in Oregon court, who denied he had harassed any athlete. The case continues.
Nike, which sponsored Salazar in the 1980s, hired him in the marketing department in the 1990s and funded the Oregon Project coaching for nearly 20 years. The company initially stood behind him and funded the appeal to have the doping penalty lifted. But more athletes accused him of misbehaving and Workers marched in protest, the company moved away from it.
Nike closed Project Oregon, and when SafeSport first banned Salazar in July, the company said, “Alberto is no longer a contract coach.” company in August Salazar’s name removed from a building on campus.