NIKE SHUTS DOWN OREGON PROJECT AFTER SALAZAR’S BAN
said on Friday it plans to shut down its Oregon Project training group after top athletics coach Alberto Salazar was banned for four years for doping. Salazar, best known for coaching Britain’s four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah, was last week handed a four-year suspension by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for a catalogue of drugs violations. The US sportswear giant had initially backed Salazar after the 61-year-old Cuban-born American denied the allegations.
Salazar’s doping violations include trafficking in testosterone, tampering with the doping control process, and administering illicit infusions of the fatburning substance, L-carnitine.
Salazar has vowed to appeal the ban and just last week, Mark Parker, Nike’s chief executive, announced that the company was standing behind Salazar, a marathon champion in his 20s and the leading figure in American distance running in the modern era. But in a memo to staff, Nike CEO Mark Parker said the project was being terminated because of the scandal. “This situation, along with ongoing unsubstantiated assertions, is a distraction for many of the athletes and is compromising their ability to focus on their training and competition needs,” Parker said. “I have therefore made the decision to wind down the Oregon Project.”
Parker said however that Nike would still support Salazar in his appeal against the ban. “A fouryear suspension for someone who acted in good faith is wrong,” said Parker in the memo, adding that “the panel found there was no orchestrated doping, no finding that performance enhancing drugs have ever been used on Oregon Project athletes”.