We have had a remarkable, maybe unprecedented, couple of months in track and field. Going back to the controversial selection of Doha for the World Athletics championships, to the breakout world best marathon performances by Eluid Kipchoge (1:59 in a time trial) and Beatrice Chepkoech the next day with a 2:14, shattering Paula Radcliffe’s record by almost a minute and a half. And then the discussion has been much about the shoes.
However, the biggest buzz has been about Alberto Salazar and the downfall of the Nike Oregon Project (NOP). That part is long overdue, as the revelations came out several years ago, but we had to wait as the behind the door proceedings between USADA and Nike played out in arbitration. There were no new major revelations out of that inquiry from what was in the press in 2015, but it was satisfying to see that all come to closure with a 4 year ban for Salazar, with shutting down NOP, and resignation of the Nike CEO who was clued in on Salazar’s testosterone testing schemes.
We likely got just 10% of the iceberg of what really went on there, at least among the tight inner circle of the coach and some athletes, and we’ll have to be satisfied with that. There was some good follow-up last month with whistleblower Kara Goucher on the Clean Sport Collective and other podcasts and articles.
Then the other week Mary Cain finally spoke out with a shocking 7 minute video published by Lindsay Crouse and the New York Times. Cain broke away from NOP right when the big stories of crossing the ethical lines of sport were coming out, and I thought–and likely most others–she left because she did not want to be associated with such a program. As a teen, who by then was struggling with performance compared to 2012-2014, we thought she’d seen enough of the gray area and decided to go back home.
Salazar has long been thought as kind of jerk from his interviews and press conferences at his peak as a runner in the early 1980s, to stories of how he and some of his teammates treated other younger athletes at the U of O. So maybe it shouldn’t be surprising to hear Cain’s account of Salazar’s obsession with her body weight, ensuing verbal abuse and telling a still maturing teenage athlete to take diet pills. But it was shocking nonetheless.
Since then former NOP athlete and Olympian Amy Yoder Begley revealed her years of degrading treatment under Salazar from 2007-2011, primarily due to his perception of what she should look like even though she was at the very lower limits of body fat for an adult female athlete. Following that, and lot of ensuing discussion, former Stanford All-American and Nike runner Lauren Fleshman penned an opinion piece in the NY Times about her own struggles with body image and weight toward the end of her college career and early years as a pro. While she did not blame her coaches (Vin Lanana was her college coach) she did call out for more female coaches in the sport.
I’m all for that. While more women coaches have stepped in at the college and high school levels, and many club-level and private training groups have women coaches, they are still far outnumbered by males. And at the pro level, top female coaches are not at all common.
However, as important as it is to close that gender gap it sort of misses the mark. Because what is needed is open discussion and dialogue now, and continued education of coaches and athletes to rid us of the idea that a runner can’t be too thin. Running, even at the highest levels, is still about keeping healthy. And athletes crossing that line, be it through overtraining, doping/gray area performance enhancing activities (e.g., thyroid or asthma medications, whether they need it or not for their health), or training and competing under nutritional deficits. These all can have life long implications for athletes, and we need to make sure that we are on the healthy side of the equation. Otherwise, it’s not worth it.
rrunnin234 