Josh Rohatinsky's Thoughts on Salazar: "Galens progression from 2006-2012 was highly suspicious to me."

The mormon age cheat from byu says, "I hate cheating. Period."

Anyway, it doesn't look like Josh is going to be willing and or able to provide any evidence against sleazy and elfie. Too bad. Thank you, Josh, for speaking out. I wish that you would or could do more.

This is a nice, well thought out reply to all of this. And it leaves hope that other members of the group (Rowbury, Cain, Centro, Levins, Hasay) may not have much to do with these allegations. I hope that is true.

Good job Josh, thanks for your insights. I believe every word.

It sounds like we can add Rohatinsky to the list of former NOP athletes who don't believe Rupp's success can be strictly attributed to hard work. Here is a post from his Facebook page:

Lengthy post regarding Alberto Salazar and Galen Rupp for those that are interested. I’ve received loads of questions from people wondering about my take on the recent news the report, so I figured it would be helpful to share a post with some context and my thoughts. In case you don’t have them, links to the article and documentary are below. Read on if you’re interested, and if so please feel free to share this post on your pages to extend the reach of all this.

1. MY BACKGROUND WITH ALBERTO. I trained under Alberto and alongside Galen, Adam and Kara Goucher, and Amy Begley from July 2007 through July 2009, and spent the remaining year and a half of my time in Portland with Jerry Schumacher and his group. For the two years I was part of Alberto’s group we trained together on a daily basis, traveled together, competed together, etc. I was with them day in and day out.

2. WALL OF SEPARATION. The entire time I was with the group there was always what I would call a wall of separation between Alberto/Galen and the rest of the group. Galen was very much Alberto’s son while the rest of the group were his athletes. In saying this I will give credit to Alberto – he worked his butt off for all of us and was very dedicated to taking care of the needs of everyone in the group. But that wall was always there, and the level of secrecy and seclusion was definitely palpable.

3. GRAY AREA. The best way I can describe it is exactly how others have – that Alberto and Galen live in the gray area of the sport. This wasn’t evident to me at the time, but definitely is now years later. The example of Alex (Alberto’s son) testing out testosterone cream and micro-dosing is a perfect example. Alberto is very much a combination of a mad scientist and a pharmacist, and it just became commonplace - I didn’t pay attention to it because it didn’t involve me.

4. SUPPLEMENTS. The only supplements Alberto ever asked me to take were testoboost (do not confuse with testosterone), which was mentioned in the article and is legal, and Alpha Male, which he indicated was legal as well but I never followed up on. These were meant to be taken daily, and I took them both 2 or 3 times and then made a conscious decision to stay away from anything that wasn’t a multivitamin, just to be safe. I was never asked to take anything besides those products – in pill form, cream form, or anything else.

5. GALEN’S PROGRESS. Galen was improving during my time with the group and began making World Championship teams and so forth. He obviously didn’t peak until a few years after I left, when he took silver in London in the 10k. I have to admit, watching that race live was surreal to me. Seeing someone I had trained with consistently for two years not too long before - and beaten several times in races in the years prior to that in college - push through that last lap and accelerate on the homestretch to beat the likes of the Bekele brothers was incredible. And when I say incredible I mean it in the literal sense of the word. How does that amount of progress happen in that short of a time frame? Supporters always point to hard work, but let me break it to you – we all worked our butts off. It reminds me of the Lance Armstrong commercial, “What Am I On?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIl5RxhLZ5U). As everyone knew long before he got busted, that pathetic liar was “on” a lot more than his bike. Alberto himself said back around the year 2000 that he believes it’s near impossible to medal in a distance event clean. Did the sport get any cleaner from 2000-2012 to make that possible? No. Galen’s progression from 2006-2012 was highly suspicious to me, particularly since I spent two of those six years with him. Again, he worked his butt off and I can attest to that – but even with that, the progression just doesn’t add up to me.

6. CONTACTED BY INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS. I am one of the 12 individuals mentioned in the documentary that were contacted. I was contacted several times over the past few years by reporters from BBC wanting to get some information from me surrounding this investigation. As recently as a month ago I spoke with Dave Epstein by phone and exchanged several emails with him. The information above is virtually the same content I was able to provide to him, which is obviously not much.

7. I BELIEVE THE WITNESSES AND THE REPORT. I absolutely believe the full extent of the evidence brought forth in the report/documentary by all the witnesses - the Gouchers, John Stiner, and Steve Magness. I know the Gouchers personally and thank them for their work on this. I also was with the team and John Stiner at the altitude camp he spoke about in Park City, and believe his report as well. I have never met Steve but from all accounts believe him to be an honest individual. Furthermore, I firmly believe that any and all PED activity within the NOP while I was there was limited to Galen Rupp. It’s evident from interviews with individuals like Kara Goucher that Alberto tried to push some of this on other athletes to some extent, but they had the integrity to question it and turn it down. Kudos to them. And as I mentioned before, I personally was never asked to take anything besides what was mentioned above.

8. SUMMARY. I hate cheating. Period. The win-at-all-costs mentality is sick. I feel bad for the fools caught up in it and frustrated that I was as trusting as I was. Is there a smoking gun to all of this? No, at least not yet. But the odds of all of these independent accounts being untrue and unsubstantiated gets lower and lower with each independent account.

SUPPLEMENTS. The only supplements Alberto ever asked me to take were testoboost (do not confuse with testosterone), which was mentioned in the article and is legal, and Alpha Male, which he indicated was legal as well but I never followed up on. These were meant to be taken daily, and I took them both 2 or 3 times and then made a conscious decision to stay away from anything that wasnt a multivitamin, just to be safe. I was never asked to take anything besides those products in pill form, cream form, or anything else

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I thought that test-o-boost was "alpha male". With tribulus terrestris amongst the main ingredients. Wasn't the tribulus terrestris prohibited by WADA?

Weakest argument ever. He trained consistently and never got a major injury and he kept improving through his peak years. Impossible!

A guy I beat in high school is now going to the Olympic trials. How is it possible?? Well, he trained a lot and got better.

Josh, meet some people who have made big improvements over time.

I'm not saying Galen's clean, but his progression is only suspect in that he has run extremely fast. Unexplained HUGE jumps are suspect, not consistent improvement.

Rohatinsky is just another jealous flop. Period. It will all come out in the wash.

What does he think of other non-Africans in general, meaning a guy like Solinksy?

Oh wait, Rupp has an Oly medal. Josh is jealous.

Everyone is so brainwashed. The scandal was growing around the E. Africans, so the usual suspects decided to try and take the heat off. After all, they have to keep all of you brainwashed into believing blacks can do no wrong. Africans are simple people who would never cheat.

The sport is a mess. But the real damage was done by Dr. Gabriele Rosa, Jos Hermens and other purveyors of drug use. Able to avoid testing because of location.

asdfasdf wrote:

Weakest argument ever. He trained consistently and never got a major injury and he kept improving through his peak years. Impossible!

A guy I beat in high school is now going to the Olympic trials. How is it possible?? Well, he trained a lot and got better.

Josh, meet some people who have made big improvements over time.

I'm not saying Galen's clean, but his progression is only suspect in that he has run extremely fast. Unexplained HUGE jumps are suspect, not consistent improvement.

Funny how people get worked up over "insider" information, even when the insiders aren't presenting anything we didn't already know. We all know what Rupp's progression has been. If Josh is working from the same evidence as us, his insider status doesn't make his argument any more valid than the same argument made by any random guy.

I also thought that Josh confused "gray" vs."grey" area, but the I Googled it and learned that both spellings are acceptable, so he is cool in my book for inadvertently teaching me something.

asdfasdf wrote:

Weakest argument ever. He trained consistently and never got a major injury and he kept improving through his peak years. Impossible!

A guy I beat in high school is now going to the Olympic trials. How is it possible?? Well, he trained a lot and got better.

Josh, meet some people who have made big improvements over time.

I'm not saying Galen's clean, but his progression is only suspect in that he has run extremely fast. Unexplained HUGE jumps are suspect, not consistent improvement.

Rohatinsky was always notch down from Rupp talent wise (and being 4 years older in College is a plus). Maybe that was because of Rupps HS doping or it could be a result of him just being better. And of course you always have to adjust for traininng levels (i.e. one guy doing 60 in hs and the other doing 90) and so on. And some people just keep getting better.

Rupps progression is tricky. Which one is more suspicious

2004: 13:38

2010: 13:07

2005 13:47

2007 13:25

1998 13:31

1999 13:11

Last one is the only one that looks fishy to me.:) The tough part about Rupp is that he had 2 years (2007-2008) where didn't run a fast 5k.

This blog post is interesting but really confirms only one piece of information, that testoboost and alphamale were taken by his athletes.

Nice work, Mr Rohatinsky. Well-written summary of your time with NOP and thoughts about Alberto/Galen.

To all you apologists, Nike worshipers, Alberto's butt-boys, etc - you lot are pathetic. You always complain with each new piece of evidence that it "doesn't add anything new", "doesn't prove anything", etc, and therefore the person who contributed it is just another jealous loser. But it does add something, even if it is not something new. Each person who tells the same basic story about Alberto and the NOP makes the case against them stronger. Plenty of decent people all tell the same story (at some cost to themselves, it should be added - see how their characters get torn apart by Alberto's Butt-Boys). It may be that Alberto never gets sanctioned, and no medals ever change hands, etc, but the truth is out about how it was all achieved. This is no inspiring story of how American ingenuity, passion, and willingness to work hard won the day. It's a story of big money and an unhealthy obsession with winning, no matter how it is achieved. In some ways, Alberto's form of cheating is the most pathetic of all. It's not like anybody involved was hurting for money - it's more like they just had to win to compensate for some kind of psychological shortcoming. Maybe Alberto's mom didn't love him or something.

It's also refreshing to see that many or most of the athletes involved didn't want any part of Salazar's win by any means approach.

Solinksy anyone? wrote:

The scandal was growing around the E. Africans, so the usual suspects decided to try and take the heat off. After all, they have to keep all of you brainwashed into believing blacks can do no wrong. Africans are simple people who would never cheat.

WTF are you even talking about? Are you off your meds?

The usual suspects like David Epstein and Kara Goucher are trying to trick us to take the heat off of blacks? Huh??

Solinksy anyone? wrote:

The sport is a mess. But the real damage was done by Dr. Gabriele Rosa, Jos Hermens and other purveyors of drug use. Able to avoid testing because of location.

It sure was

This story is 100x bigger than NOP

I'm baffled that anyone would be suspicious of Rupp's progress. For years I have marvelled at how gradual it actually was. Sure there were big jumps WHEN HE WAS A YOUNG TEEN.

It's a nicely written piece that reveals absolutely ZERO wrongdoing.

(I guess I'm also baffled by the number of NOP/AlSal haters in general, but that might be worthy of another thread. I have a theory that USA cannot deal with track success - ie if we are beating Africans it must be wrong somehow.)

I'm very uncomfortable with the number referring to alberto as a pharmacist.

Skuj wrote:

I'm baffled that anyone would be suspicious of Rupp's progress. For years I have marvelled at how gradual it actually was. Sure there were big jumps WHEN HE WAS A YOUNG TEEN.

Gradual? He was a 4:01 miler in high school, stuck at 3:57, forever, then suddenly drops to 3:34/3:51. He was getting his ass toasted by such incredible kickers as Abdi Abdirahman, then suddenly was able to outkick the best in the world.

Gradual you say?

1500 Metres 2014 3:34.15 Bruxelles 05 SEP 2013 3:36.69 London (Olympic Stadium) 27 JUL 2012 3:34.75 Los Angeles (OC), CA 18 MAY 2009 3:39.14 Eugene, OR 30 MAY 2005 3:44.39 Cuxhaven 09 JUL 2003 3:53.57 Amherst 06 JUL One Mile 2013 3:52.11 London (Olympic Stadium) 27 JUL 2010 3:57.72 Eugene, OR 03 JUL 2008 4:03.13 Eugene, OR 26 APR

Sudden Impact wrote:

Skuj wrote:

I'm baffled that anyone would be suspicious of Rupp's progress. For years I have marvelled at how gradual it actually was. Sure there were big jumps WHEN HE WAS A YOUNG TEEN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO_wIAYDRhw

Gradual? He was a 4:01 miler in high school, stuck at 3:57, forever, then suddenly drops to 3:34/3:51. He was getting his ass toasted by such incredible kickers as Abdi Abdirahman, then suddenly was able to outkick the best in the world.

Gradual you say?

3 years from 3:57 to 3:52 is not "suddenly".