The sporting goods manufacturer Nike is under pressure in the doping affair Salazar. As the "Wall Street Journal" (WSJ) reports (read the original text here), Salazar, the athletics coach blocked for four years by the US anti-doping agency Usada, is to inform leading Nike employees about the results of his experiments in 2009 to have. This is to emerge from e-mails Salazar sent, among other things, directly to Nike CEO Mark Parker. Salazar is the head of the Nike Oregon Project (NOP), an elite team of middle and long distance runners set to break the hegemony of African runners. The top German runner Konstanze Klosterhalfen also trains in the NOP.
Salazar and four-year suspended doctor Jeffrey Brown are said to have conducted tests at a laboratory on the grounds of Nike headquarters to determine the concentration at which a new testosterone cream can lead to positive drug tests. Parker is said to have been explicitly informed about this and about other experiments - and made specific demands, according to the WSJ report.
Don Ryan / AP / dpa
Nike wants to continue supporting Alberto Salazar
Salazar denies the allegations and wants to proceed to the International Court of Justice Cas against the ban. Nike wants to support the 61-year-olds, a spokesman for the company said. "Nike does not tolerate the use of banned substances in any way," the statement said. For a further statement Nike was not attainable for the SPIEGEL. Salazar claims to have tested limits in the interest of his athletes in order to protect themselves from manipulation.
Nike's knowledge of the doping scandal is not entirely new. As SPIEGEL reported a year and a half ago, Salazar also supported former cyclist Lance Armstrong in 2011, who was preparing for a triathlon after finishing his active cycling career. At this time, Armstrong was already under suspicion of doping, the lifelong barrier of the Americans was pronounced by the Cycling World Association UCI, however, only in October 2012.
Salazar had tested the intravenous use of a dietary supplement, the ingredient L-carnitine could guarantee an advantage of two to three minutes. In an e-mail to Armstrong, Salazar wrote, "Lance, call me, we tested it, and it's really incredible." He had also set several Nike managers in copy, such as the then CEO Tom Clarke.
The allegations to Nike also cast a bad light on the World Athletics Federation IAAF - and the upcoming World Cup 2021 in Eugene, Oregon. The World Association's decision has been criticized for years because the World Cup was awarded without an official application process and the sporting goods manufacturer - a major athletics sponsor - is based in Beaverton, in the immediate vicinity of Eugene.
