A confidential US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) report says track coach Alberto Salazar has violated drug protocols with Britain’s Mo Farah and other elite runners, the New York Times (NYT) reported on Saturday.
The newspaper outlined how the 269-page report on the Oregon Project, a Nike-financed initiative featuring some of the world’s top runners, created tensions between Salazar and athletes over medical issues and methods of boosting performance.
Salazar has denied violating anti-doping rules, saying he and the program athletes follow proper anti-doping protocols.
Photo: AFP
However, the NYT described a culture of coercion, secrecy and possible medical malpractice in the team, which in part were aimed at improving US distance running on the global level.
No sanctions against anyone have been announced in the report.
“We cannot comment on the specific situation at this time,” a USADA spokesman said. “However, we know there is a win-at-all-costs culture that exists across all levels of sport and coaches especially — given their influence over athletes — have a responsibility to rise above those pressures and ensure that athlete health and safety is protected.”
Salazar was described as a medicine supplier for Nike-backed world-class athletes and the report said he provided or aided access to prescription-strength doses of such drugs as Vitamin D, calcitonin, Advair, testosterone plus various thyroid medications — many of which have no proven benefits for runners.
The news broke a week before some of the world’s top athletes gather in Eugene, Oregon, for the Prefontaine Classic, a Diamond League meet.
USADA began investigating Salazar and the Oregon Project in 2015 after former team members and a staff member described program cheating in a report by the BBC and ProPublica.
Some aspects of the USADA findings have been reported by the Times of London, the NYT reported.
The report, written in March last year, indicates USADA officials believe Salazar and Houston endocrinologist Jeffrey Brown administered an infusion procedure in violation of anti-doping rules, colluded to hide it and lied to athletes about its legality, the NYT said.
“Salazar’s conduct here is patently calculating, misleading and dishonest,” the report said, part of an appeal to the Texas Medical Board to force the release of Brown’s files.
Salazar did not cooperate with the USADA investigation and did not respond to NYT interview requests.
The newspaper said Nike declined to respond to questions and US Olympic distance runner Dathan Ritzenhein declined to speak about specifics on his time with Salazar, referring to sworn testimony in the report where he and other Nike-backed athletes described a culture where they felt immense pressure to obey Salazar or see their careers end.
They “were acutely aware that these opportunities could be withdrawn at Alberto Salazar’s discretion and were dependent both upon Salazar’s favor and their own athletic performance,” the NYT quotes the report as saying. “These facts created huge pressure to conform to Salazar’s wishes and use substances and training methods advocated by him.”
Ritzenhein said he and “pretty much everybody on the team” took supplements Salazar had in his basement when they joined the Oregon Project.
In 2011, Salazar began giving athletes a drink product of L-carnitine, which British researchers said boosted performance, and asked athletes to keep it secret to keep what he saw as an advantage.
Salazar had Brown test a quick infusion method of L-carnitine gains on an employee for four hours, the report said.
While L-carnitine is not a banned substance, the method of infusion used by Brown was prohibited, the report said.
Anti-doping rules ban infusions or injections of more than 50 milliliters for six hours, barring hospital or surgical needs, but US anti-doping officials in the report said it was more like 1 liter was infused.
After treadmill performance was improved in a test subject, Ritzenhein asked Salazar: “Is this legal? This doesn’t sound legal,” and the infusion protocol was cut to one hour at a time.
An e-mail USADA officials obtained from Salazar told Ritzenhein: “We are cutting edge, but we take no chances on a screw up. ”
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