Mary Cain's complaint is online

Precious Roy wrote:

Cain wants to change that relationship and put a duty on sponsors and coaches to be responsible for the physical and psychological toll of their actions.

That is indeed the gist of the negligence charges against Salazar and I'm not sure that they are going to stick. Even taking the facts as alleged, it seems like a stretch to say that Salazar was negligent because his actions took a toll. High performance athletics is an inherently risky endeavor. There is inherently going to be a toll-- that's why we celebrate performance athletes in the first place. It is hard to say that this negligence.

In other words-- of course Salazar inflicted physical and emotional distress. That is the whole point of high performance athletics.

The charges against Nike may be a little different-- I can see negligent entrustment sticking, depending on their knowledge of Salazar's past. Also-- Cain was pretty dang close to being a minor when this started, right?

The disparate treatment/discrimination charges are pretty interesting. Not really sure how Cain feels that she was in a comparable position to any particular male athlete, much less that discrimination/treatment somehow interfered with her career advancement over that athlete's.

Why was "sexual" abuse mentioned

The point of a lawsuit like this isn’t to get rich, it’s to force companies to implement policies so that they don’t get sued again.

The sport of track and field could use some more professionalism. Maybe this is what will make that happen.

Everywhere is known for low settlements.

That's just scare tactics to intimidate plaintiffs.

If she wins the case, it will not be a low settlement.

Skittles wrote:

Why was "sexual" abuse mentioned

Does your boss usually publicly discuss the size of your breasts and/or other sexual body parts in front of your coworkers? It’s pretty textbook sexual harassment.

Nike is a multi-billion dollar corporation. They can’t allow their employees to ignore basic employment law.

Cain is probably looking at a modest settlement here that compels Nike to clean up its act.

Some of these individual counts are so absurd they function as comedy. For example we're supposed to believe that it is actionable "negligence" for Salazar to fail to provide feedback to athletes in a caring manner.

The entire employment discrimination count seems especially silly. Her New York Times article made the case that the problem with NOP was that it was designed for men and failed to take into account the differences between the needs of male and female athletes.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/opinion/nike-running-mary-cain.html

Cain: " We need more women in power. Part of me wonders if I had worked with more female psychologists, nutritionists and even coaches where I’d be today. I got caught in a system designed by and for men, which destroys the bodies of young girls."

Goucher: "A big part of this problem is that women and girls are being forced to meet athletic standards that are based on how men and boys develop. If you try to make a girl fit a boy’s development timeline, her body is at risk of breaking down. That is what happened to Cain."

Yet the suit claims discrimination by treating her different than her male counterparts.

Is it discrimination to treat her differently or is it negligence to not treat her differently? She seems to want it both ways.

Can't find anything to disagree with. But as this is lets run, I'm sure some with invent whatever they want to counter.

The only reason I'm critical is because I would do the same thing and I know it wouldn't come from a good place. I have grievances with certain people in my running past. I really feel for Mary Cain here, and doing something about female athletes being abused is admirable and needed. If I had the kind of power she had, I would want to do the same thing. But at some point you have to question yourself. Am I seeking justice or am I seeking revenge? My guess is revenge, and everyone else here on Letsrun is also guessing revenge because they understand how it would feel to have your career destroyed. I hope it settles out of court for a nice sum and she takes that money and puts it towards something worthwhile. And then get a therapist and try to forget Nike even exists because it's not good for your own mental health to do this and if you sabotage yourself for revenge, the joke is on you.

Sifan should take the stand and say "He called me fat, I lost weight and started setting world records"

Wouldn't this open up a big can of worms for a lot of people that feel wronged by previous mentors or employers?

Mary Cain has never worked for Amazon.

Imagine if we got sued for every fat girl we came across in the middle school hallway. Good thing we don't have billions or those fat girls would come crying to a judge to get them a piece.

Well that is ironic. This kind of looks like a money grab.

She sadly seems like another millennial that takes pleasure in being a victim of some type. It's really her whole identity now.

Wolten wrote:

A bit contradictive from plaintiff stating the role of coach was to "befriend, mentor.." if anyone befriends me, they then have the right and privilege to criticize, make fun of, shame, etc., as any friend is meant to do in a relationship. Judge may toss this out.

^Can a person really be this idiotic?

I do not expect my kid's coaches to "make fun of and shame" her the way I would make fun of my friends (who I don't make a habit of "shaming"). You sound like you have little experience with friends, and definitely no kids.

middle school bully wrote:

Imagine if we got sued for every fat girl we came across in the middle school hallway. Good thing we don't have billions or those fat girls would come crying to a judge to get them a piece.

Hardly. Cain's case is based on the fact that Salazar was not some random bully but her coach. She claims that because he was her coach, he had a legal duty to treat her better than he did.

You can think the underlying law is bad, that the law suit is frivolous, or that Salazar should win, but you shouldn't get confused about the legal basis for the case.

Your claim is as irrelevant as a Cain supporter claiming that if Cain loses, female athletes will be slaves, or some such.

I'd argue that Jordan was made better by Salazar.

I'd argue that Kara Goucher was made better by Salazar.

Jordan should sue whoever got Salazar banned.

Goucher should sue....herself?

Prima Donna wrote:

I don’t see this complaint ending up anywhere close to what she’s asking. They will be settling for much less. First this is a he said she said case. She will need witnesses to help her prove the things he allegedly said. Secondly there is a statute of limitations. Likely many of her so called injuries she blames him on will be taken out of the complaint by a judge because it’s been over a year. If they remain she will need to prove without a doubt that Al caused them. Very hard to do. The only “injury” I see holding up is emotional abuse and that isn’t worth even a million. Sounds like sour grapes - ended up not being such a great runner and blames it on others

I empathize with Mary and Al Sal deserves punishment but here's the thing:

1) She's already famous and has made connections through running, so she could get a good job regardless, in Nike or a athletic company in PR/marketing/corporate development/outreach/speaking, etc.

2) She comes from a wealthy family so she had connections to begin with even had the running failed--she had a place to land in case things didn't work out. I think she even went back to school for pre-med so she's obviously STEM-smart as well.

The point is--even if her running didn't work out (and I agree with her that Al Sal was a mean SOB, etc. and abusive) she still had privilege, doors, and other means to succeed in life that most don't have to begin with. She didn't need to file the lawsuit at all to begin with.

Wowzers wrote:

I read through most of the complaint and complaints like this are by definition one sided and skewed as much as possible. So they can often seem very persuasive towards the plaintiffs arguments.

Exactly. This is how litigator works since the Mary defenders here do not seem to understand it.

Also, I hate to break it to Mary defenders, you have to be fit to be the fastest woman in the world.