Kara Goucher still profiting off Nike & Alberto, with new book

Hate fuels many keyboard outputs, as is evidenced in this thread.

Posts like this: the “Look at me! Look at me, a real man and I’ve been through hard difficult times but I don’t play victim!” Posts are always the whiniest posts out of all of them. guys who write out how “they go through hard times toooooo” want the credit and acknowledgement for being brave little boys. It’s pathetic.

To me, Jordan's improvement is the most unrealistic out of all the NOP athletes.

There are a lot of attention seeking losers in the sport right now and that sucks. I don’t believe Kara is one of them.

she is an og, breaking through to the world stage in the mid 00s and inspiring others to do the same. Then she did something pretty (and actually) brave which was to go public about drug use at nop. keep in mind she’d been talking to usada and the fbi beforehand. She knew her name would get dragged through the mud and it did.

you can question her motives, but you can’t question that she has a story to tell. And that story has never changed. Kara has been honest all the way through, even about stuff that she knew would make the public side eye her (she spoke about Salazar bringing up Mary decker slaney before she agreed to have him coach her and agreed to it anyway).

She’s also not unemployed. She’s a great commentator. She might be a little far left politically but come on, don’t trash her for that.

You're high. Adam improved by a massive 1.25 seconds in the 5000. Kara got somewhat better but she was running 15:20s as a college sophomore and winning multiple NCAA titles.

The forgotten issue here is that these are stories that revolve around power and the ability to manipulate those who don't have it. Nike "OWNS" running... they hold all the cards. They have the connections to squash your career, they can get you into the right meets or have you removed from them, they control the marketing of events all the way down to what you can wear on your kit (ever wonder why runners aren't racing in singlets with a bunch of sponsorships on them)... The idea that Kara has this easy choice to just "walk away" is short sided and ignorant to the situations that professional runners have had to deal with, especially in the era she ran.

Today it's easier, there's more shoe companies with sponsorships, there's social media channels to earn money ("Olympic Runner vs the Deadlift!!!!), and coaching is more widely available... but at the time, the best coach in the world at the most powerful running company in the world has you on their team, and the relationship between Alberto and his athletes is to be subservient. It's a power dynamic that has no respect or empathy for the individual that has everything to lose.

The idea that people who feel abused are doing it for a payday is just silly. No one puts themselves into the public foray to talk about these things unless they feel wronged. I totally support Kara, same goes for Mary Cain. The problem I see is a bunch of men trashing a female to "toughen up" and "if you don't like it, get out"! Nothing in life is that simple, especially when it comes to your livelihood. And if you do think it's that simple, you're probably part of the problem.

Lot of posts in this thread seem to be avatars for Nike or Al Sal, or simply misinformed and misguided.

If anything, Nike skated more or less unscathed from this scandal.

"Disgraced Running Coach Was Barred for Life for Sexual Assault"

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/sports/alberto-salazar-sexual-assault.html

"I Was the Fastest Girl in America, Until I jointed Nike"

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

Kara G. never "playing the victim card" or whatever. You think standing up to Nike (or any giant corporation) is easy? Far easier to keep one's head down, play dumb, and give generic answers to the press like, "No, I never saw anything like that when I was there, you'll have to ask so and so..."

I want to know about the massages. Also know what if anything she got from Dr. Brown.

Look one of my best friends in HS and some of my runners at Cornell were super talented but they couldn't figure out their ferritin. I remember telling one of them, "If we had enough money, you'd go see this guy Dr. Brown in Texas."

So I'm not faulting her necessarily. The guy was speaking at USATF conventions. But I do think people's endocrine systems can easily get wrecked by running and he makes it so that doesn't happen.

Magness found Brown on his own. WEtmore found him as well.. The guy was well known as a doc who could help runners.

If cancel culture had any consistency, which it does not because it's fueled by clout chasing nobodies, then Nike would have been canceled long ago. The same company using child slave labor is thriving in North America and worldwide. Maybe these Nike athletes should question why they are/were sponsored by Nike, instead of being complicit in child abuse, and address the lack of wokers' rights and child slave labor in second and third world gutters.

Mostly, I really don't mind Kara at all though. She's a good commentator when analyzing the track meets. What I don't necessarily agree with is her profiting off a person who she's fine with attempting to destroy his career over a witch hunt, essentially.

Alberto never forced his athletes into anything. They all agreed to what he was doing and to be coached by him. They were free to leave at their discretion. Whether it be thyroid meds, TUEs, etc--it was all mutually consented.

Now does this breech ethical standards? It certainly does. But some athletes agreed and yet Alberto is the fall guy.

If the athletes did not like it, they're free to exit. Without Alberto as her coach, Kara misses her success and level of notoriety and she is not enabled to have the same social platform or fame or announcing job she has today. Simple. Alberto made Kara. Alberto didn't need Kara to become famous but Kara needed Alberto to become famous.

She needs to explain why she ran all her prs with Al......

Salazar destroyed his own career and reputation. No "attempting to destroy" needed - it's already over.

And Nike agrees:

Nike Renames Alberto Salazar Building

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/sports/nike-alberto-salazar-building.html

You're projecting your values onto her about "fame" and "social platforms" ("need to become famous") - that doesn't seem to be what's driving her.

As a "real man" (as you say), she risked ostracism by speaking up, standing up to a mega-corporation, and a powerful corporation-backed coach. That's courage and strength, not being a "victim."

On the other hand, a lot of stuff you ascribe to her could be applied to Salazar (frankly, setting aside his own running feats, as a (now disgraced) coach he's a nobody without his athletes, and the closet full of Nike-logo clothing/paycheck. And for that matter, whatever weird gels he rubs on peoples' backs

A "real man" also owns up to their mistakes and apologizes and corrects course- something it appears Salazar still hasn't done. And maybe if he had, people wouldn't feel the need to write books on the topic.

Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike's Elite Running Team

I would be interested if she drops any previously unknown info about Nike teams and their involvement in doping

Now if you're admitting he breeched ethical standards, and by the way breech of trust not mention contract are such standards then why are you blaming the athletes? They trusted him and once they accepted him as a coach it's an implied if not written contract and he violated both.

Why?

This is actually the first book, in a long time, that I will preorder. Looking forward to it!

Yep, same old same old.

She boasted to the nth degree and it was all about her, everything

She broke 2:25 by 8 seconds, that's her PR. SUPER shoes would not have done much more for her.

It's been gone over many times before. She only won Silver due to a weak field. Accept it because it's the truth. Look at what she placed the next year at the Olympics, with a pr too!

I'm not 1 percent jealous and yes, I've run faster than her on a 10k CC course in College so you can argue against my facts on another topic.

Her announcing to me is above average, but she'll always turn something about someone else into something about her.

She's arrogant to a whole different level. Some of you like that, I don't. You know what they say about opinions,)