Your Weekly Read / Listen
LRC Week That Was: Meet Joseph Elsakr The Last Marathon Olympic Trials Qualifier and Robert Keter the Most Unlikely World Record Holder Meet the guy who ran over 2:19 and will be at the Trials.
LRC Podcast: Mary Cain’s NOP Allegations, Diamond League Changes, How to Better Moderate / Leah O’Connor’s Messageboard Complaints + More Marathon Trials Talk We discuss at length Mary Cain’s allegations vs Alberto Salazar and her treatment by Nike and the NOP.
Mary Cain Makes Serious Allegations Against Alberto Salazar And Nike
LRC Nike, Alberto Salazar and Top Pros Respond To Mary Cain’s Allegations Nike has issued a statement saying they will start an immediate investigation of the “troubling allegations” while Cain has confirmed she did try to rejoin the team in April of this year. Additionally, three former NOP members have said Salazar was very focused on the weight of his female athletes, but Salazar has issued a forceful denial of Cain’s allegations, writing to Ken Goe, “To be clear, I never encouraged her, or worse yet, shamed her, to maintain an unhealthy weight.”
*Salazar Denies Cain’s Allegations Salazar tells Ken Goe that both of Cain’s parents, including her father who is an MD, were deeply involved in her training and aware of all supplement she was on. He says when Cain struggled “to find and maintain her ideal performance and training weight” he referred her to a female doctor. He also shared a text message from April where Cain wrote, “Thanks again so much for a great trip — I’m excited to be working together again and I really want this.”
LRC Full Transcript of NY Times Video: Mary Cain Says She Was “Emotionally And Physically Abused By A System Designed By Alberto [Salazar] And Endorsed By Nike” In an explosive New York Times video essay, Cain claims she was pressured by Salazar to lose weight (to get down to 114 pounds) and was weighed in front of teammates and “publicly shamed” if she didn’t hit weight. She also says Salazar wanted her to take birth control pills and diuretics to shed pounds – the latter of which is against track and field’s rules according to Cain. Cain also says she became suicidal and started to cut herself and says when she told Alberto Salazar and Darren Treasure that she was cutting herself that “they pretty much told me that they just wanted to go to bed.”
*MB: Explosive New York Times article: Mary Cain breaks silence about NOP
- Former NOP Runner Jackie Areson Speaks Out About Alberto Salazar On Instagram She says Salazar was “obsessed” with weight and called her fat and said she had a huge butt, even when she was setting PRs. She also says Salazar bashed Jenny Simpson for her weight in 2012 and says NOP’s Darren Treasure was “just as bad” as Salazar.
- Writer Elizabeth Weil Regrets The Positive Piece She Wrote On Mary Cain And NOP For The NY Times In 2015 “In hindsight I got it so wrong.”
- Shalane Flangan reacts “I’m so sorry @runmarycain that I never reached out to you when I saw you struggling. I made excuses to myself as to why I should mind my own business. We let you down. I will never turn my head again.”
- Mary Cain and her mother go on Good Morning America
- Amy Yoder Begley On Twitter: “After placing 6th in the 10,000m at the 2011 USATF championships, I was kicked out of the Oregon Project. I was told I was too fat and ‘had the biggest but on the startling line.’”
- Mary Cain Story Picked Up By People Magazine On twitter, Jonathan Marcus was the meet director for the 2015 Oxy meet and confirmed Cain’s story about Salazar yelling at her in public for “gaining weight.”
The Weekly LRC Podcast
LRC Podcast 2019 New York City Marathon Recap + Look at 2020 US Olympic Marathon Trials, New Shoes, World Marathon Majors Expansion? New York City is in the books and the Olympic Trials on the horizon.