Alberto Salazar BANNED For Life for "Sexual Misconduct"

John Macardle wrote:

Sleazazar should have taken your “shut the F up” advice a long time ago.

He was an inspiration to 100s of runners. He knew more about long distance running than you. He had better performances than you. Was tougher than you. And coached Galen Rupp, who is also better than you. Galen is better than any other american clowns like the ones on this site.

The issue isn’t whether or not Salazar is a good guy. It’s whether or not he got due process, which he did not because he was not given the basic protections of a court of law. SafeSport presents this lifetime ban as if he committed a sexual crime. A lifetime ban is a big deal. Calling someone a sexual deviant is a big deal.

Go to Twitter and the women are assume he’s a rapist and are out for blood. There is no evidence he committed any crime of a sexual nature. Theres no police report, He should counter sue the women.

Agree with all of that Aloha. The use of the term Sexual Misconduct is defamatory to Mr. Salazar. The twisted situation of a secret tribunals, with no due process, responsible for punishing behaviors of professional coaches coaching professional adult athletes (who happen to be in Olympic based sports) is pure madness. This whole thing about SafeSport only involved with Olympic sports is so antiquated as to be insane. SafeSport should be solely for the safe oversight of minors in ANY sport. The Olympics thing is a total sham, this isn't the era of Avery Brundidge. Just about every sports league now except the NFL plays an Olympic sport.

AlohaState wrote:

The issue isn’t whether or not Salazar is a good guy. It’s whether or not he got due process, which he did not because he was not given the basic protections of a court of law. SafeSport presents this lifetime ban as if he committed a sexual crime. A lifetime ban is a big deal. Calling someone a sexual deviant is a big deal.

Go to Twitter and the women are assume he’s a rapist and are out for blood. There is no evidence he committed any crime of a sexual nature. Theres no police report, He should counter sue the women.

You do not understand what due process means. Learn about that and then respond if you want.

It's about time. The man has never had a "real" job, always scavenger off his athletes. Maybe now he will get a job like the rest of us. Maybe he should apply for a collegiate job where he has to abide by rules.

AlohaState wrote:

The issue isn’t whether or not Salazar is a good guy. It’s whether or not he got due process, which he did not because he was not given the basic protections of a court of law. SafeSport presents this lifetime ban as if he committed a sexual crime. A lifetime ban is a big deal. Calling someone a sexual deviant is a big deal.

Go to Twitter and the women are assume he’s a rapist and are out for blood. There is no evidence he committed any crime of a sexual nature. Theres no police report, He should counter sue the women.

+1. Great post.

eagle down wrote:

As of right now, it appears that his weight comments to Mary Cain are being called "sexual misconduct" and that's total bullsh*t.

.

and

AlohaState wrote:

The issue isn’t whether or not Salazar is a good guy. It’s whether or not he got due process, which he did not because he was not given the basic protections of a court of law. SafeSport presents this lifetime ban as if he committed a sexual crime. A lifetime ban is a big deal. Calling someone a sexual deviant is a big deal.

Go to Twitter and the women are assume he’s a rapist and are out for blood. There is no evidence he committed any crime of a sexual nature. Theres no police report, He should counter sue the women.

I think this gets at the heart of it. Everyone admits Salazar was a JERK. A suicide could have resulted with how he treated Cain. A suspension is in order, but unless there is more than has been reported, a lifetime ban for sexual misconduct when none of the allegations have been sexual in nature? That seems like a lot for most people.

We need to hold coaches to very high standards - like the cops. To be called "coach" is a great honor and great responsibility. But we also need to have some semblance of fairness. And I get this isn't a court of law but it seems odd to me there isnt' a list of recommended punishments for various trangressions. Some should be viewed as misdemeanors, some as felonies, etc.

If you knowingly dope, you don't get a lifetime ban. Why would fat-shaming result in a lifetime ban? It should result in a public reprimand, suspension and counseling.

I'd give him a muil-year suspension - guess what - he's going to be out for two more years anyway and require counseling.

Plus there is apparently no statute of limitations. So if someone did something 20 years ago, has a spotless record since then, they can be banned for life? Really?

Lastly, if there isn't anything more than what has been alleged, I don't see how any of it is really related" to their gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression" which seems to be a requirement. I mean other than the fact that women have boobs and men don't. To me, he harassed them. I don't see how he really sexually harrassed them.

If this is such a great idea, then let's apply it to all sports - football, basketball, etc.

This is almost like the opposite of a lifetime achievement award. Like giving the season MVP to retiring past their prime great as way to honor a career on their way out. Instead it’s he has made enough enemies over the years that it caught up with him.

Occam’s razor would tell you there is more to this than has been divulged and that Alberto does not want it divulged. This leads to confusion among the public and a sense that Alberto has been wronged. This is not likely the case at all.

Nothing should catch up to anyone unless it was a fair reckoning through a fair airing and rebuttal of the facts.

To the majority, this is not fair. rojo is spot on here, and correct about the application to all other sports (except maybe the NFL which is not an Olympic sport). But why just Olympic sports? Young HS football players all over America have been hazed, sexually harassed and sexually assaulted in the past. Where was SafeSport to help them? The focus should be MINORS, as originally intended. Not adult professionals with big money connections, agents, lawyers and advisors.

OozmaKappa wrote:

The left has made it illegal to state simple facts.

Because the right has demonstrated ad nauseum that it does not have the IQ to understand simple facts.

OozmaKappa wrote:

The left has made it illegal to state simple facts.

Bonkers wrote:

Always amazing how many people don't actually understand freedom of speech. The first amendment protects you from government persecution, not from social consequences.

It's pretty gross the number of people who are ok with what Salazar did.

It's only the right that never seem to understand the freedom of speech concept. Clearly they are not too bright or they would have understood it by now.

Which person has said what Salazar did was OK? I've never seen one. Help me out.

Sorry NYDC, not intended for you. I agree with your politically accurate statement.

100% agreed Rojo, well put.

KudzuRunner wrote:

P. 9, "Sexual and gender related harrassment." It's exactly as I thought, on the face of it. Suppose Salazar repeatedly accused one of his male runners of having a "candy a**," as part of a concerted attempt, based in sincere belief, to get him to change his diet and lose weight. Would that fall into this category? Body shaming is an established protocol in the training of athletes. "You guys look like a bunch of f***ing puffballs!" This includes the explicit naming of problematic body parts. It's not sexual. It's psychological. It may be misguided and ineffective--or not.

Something changes, apparently, when the stigmatized a** in question belongs to a female rather than a male.

That's what this comes down to. You can quote me on that.

You people surely must be teenagers who are still in school. For those who are employed, you should pay better attention to the material in the seminar your company should be offering on sexual harassment and hostile work environments.

jonnyio wrote:

Occam’s razor would tell you there is more to this than has been divulged and that Alberto does not want it divulged. This leads to confusion among the public and a sense that Alberto has been wronged. This is not likely the case at all.

Either way, I don't think the basis of their sanctions should be kept secret. Whether the details make Salazar look better or worse, I think they should be known.

A body that can hand out sanctions should operate under public scrutiny. Even if they ultimately arrived at the right decision, it shouldn't be made behind closed doors.

I think Rojo's comments are spot on. Absent any more information, labeling his conduct as sexual misconduct doesn't get to the heart of the matter. At least make the charge fit with the behavior.

Where I live, the University of Florida fired its women's basketball coach for being a jerk earlier this year. Sexual harassment, Title IX, none of that was mentioned, just the instances where this guy said a lot of things similar to what Salazar said to his athletes.

No one is upset the basketball coach is gone. No one is claiming he committed sexual crimes, either.

Some of you are so lazy, the answers to the things you claim are secret (aside from the allegations against Salazar) like how the Center has the authority to do this and where their funding comes from are easily found via Google. Most of them have also been addressed at some point in this thread.

I reported (as a third party reporter) a coach for sexual misconduct in 2017, before the US Center for SafeSport even opened. It ended up being one of their first cases, and he received a lifetime ban in 2018. He had been investigated by law enforcement multiple times, but no charges were ever filed. He is very much still coaching today, just not at USATF events.

As mentioned previously in this thread, SafeSport bans are much more limited than doping bans. They are banned from the Olympic movement (so Salazar could not coach at USA Triathlon events, for example). Salazar cannot participate (i.e. coach, compete, officiate, etc) at USATF sanctioned events. He could be a spectator (unless the meet director doesn't allow him in). Heck, apparently he could hang out in the Nike VIP area and that would be cool, like Mark Block.

Most track meets in the US are not USATF sanctioned. There is nothing stopping Salazar from coaching at any high school/college/AAU meet in this country, unless those groups or individual meet directors choose to ban him. AAU has absolutely zero concern about athlete safety, and they are trying to get into the business of sanctioning adult meets, so that's not as far fetched of an idea as it sounds, and of course the bulk of elite marks set on US soil are set at college meets.

Athletes who train with coaches banned by SafeSport are not punished for training with them, though no USATF/USOPC funds could be used toward that purpose.

SafeSport means nothing outside the US. I suspect he is fairly unhireable at this point due to all of the allegations between SafeSport and doping, but I would not be shocked if some middle eastern country was willing to hire him. I have no idea what he wants to do though.

I have now been involved in multiple SafeSport cases in a variety of ways, and I have talked to victims in a variety of sports who have been involved in SafeSport cases.

My experience has been that the Center is not very consistent in their punishments for people who violate the SafeSport Code.

The allegations that have been made public against Salazar include NUMEROUS violations of the SafeSport Code. Also keep in mind that many of the doping violations he is accused of are also violations of the SafeSport Code. Yes, you could theoretically get punished by both agencies for the same action, though SafeSport would not normally be touching a doping case unless it is part of a larger pattern of abuse.

As others have mentioned, there is no specific punishment tied to specific Code violations. I have seen coaches accused of more serious things than the public allegations against Salazar have no public action taken against them.

And sadly, this story being in the media means the Center gave it lots of attention, while other cases are taking years to resolve. I literally had the Center take almost a year and a half just to decide jurisdiction on a case (non sexual cases are generally handed over to the NGBs), and the investigation cannot even start until the Center decides whose case it is. That case will hit the three year mark soon. The investigator ghosted the victims nearly a year ago.

The Letsrun article is accurate... it is possible he was banned solely based on allegations already made public, or it is possible that there are more serious allegations that were not made public.

At the end of the day, victims don't owe you their story. SafeSport has the authority to ban Salazar from the Olympic movement, and an independent arbitrator upheld their decision. There is due process, please read the SafeSport Code.

The problem with SafeSport is not that Salazar got banned, it is that many more coaches have been reported for abusing athletes and have walked away with no punishment. If you and your abuser are just a "nobody" in the Olympic movement, and there are no criminal charges related to your case, justice can be very hard to come by.

At the end of the day, it wouldn't matter if one of Salazar's athletes came out with explicit allegations of sexual misconduct. They would be accused of lying, the serious nature of the allegations would be downplayed, the abuse of power would be downplayed, etc. If there are more allegations out there, I don't blame the victim(s) one bit for not coming forward publicly.