Salazar lied about not coaching Mary Slaney, and the BBC has the goods

SO what? wrote:

What does you fabricated story have to with Salazar?

The point I was trying to make is that there can be a grey area between being the full time coach of record versus being a consultant or working in some lesser capacity with an athlete. For example banned coach Jon Drummon has worked with numerous world class professional sprinters for brief periods of time. Depending on how you look at it, Jon could say he was once their coach; however, I would suspect most of those athlete would say Jon was never their coach.

re:"fabricated story" - The program I co-started is still in existence today and continues to provide instruction, albeit I have not been involved for many years. It is now much larger and is exclusively geared towards non-track athletes. A quick internet search and connecting a few dots will give you a clue.

OSU_FAN wrote:

I guess I'm a bit confused by what him coaching her during her drug use can prove.

I guess I'm confused by what he thinks establishing that he wasn't coaching her during her drug use -- which is clearly not working -- can prove. If he's trying to paint a picture of himself as a coach who runs away from athletes he knows are using PEDs, I think he's going to have to rely a lot more strongly on information that's both more current and more pertinent.

If I get accused of insider trading on Wall Street, claiming that I turned in a classmate for cheating on an exam in 1996 probably won't go a long way toward securing myself credibility.

Clint, get off the boards and back to work.

needs to be said wrote:

Salazar must be telling the truth because he's deeply religious. Mo as well - he does that whole kissing the ground thing when he wins a race. Religious people don't lie - it's in the rules.

I don't think it is, actually. Not in The Ten Commandments.

Michigan Fan wrote:

I guess I'm confused by what he thinks establishing that he wasn't coaching her during her drug use -- which is clearly not working -- can prove. If he's trying to paint a picture of himself as a coach who runs away from athletes he knows are using PEDs, I think he's going to have to rely a lot more strongly on information that's both more current and more pertinent.

If I get accused of insider trading on Wall Street, claiming that I turned in a classmate for cheating on an exam in 1996 probably won't go a long way toward securing myself credibility.

Someone made a claim regarding Slaney that showed AS in a bad light. He is trying to counter that claim.

That is all.

here we go again wrote:

Athletics West was active until 1990 when is became Nike International. I'm not sure that you know what you're talking about but you just keep talking and deflecting and apologizing. It seems that your response is poorly researched.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_West

Athletics West was NOT "active until 1990." The building was closed and all employees terminated very shortly after Jeff Drenth died in the AW bathroom in 1986. From a former employee posting on Lets Run:

I don't know much about the early years at AW. Nike moved me from Exeter, NH to AW to run the lab there, which I did from 1983 to 1986. Many AW Athetes lived in Eugene, some did not. Some very successful ones who just came occasionally (often to be tested in the lab) included, Henry Marsh and Doug Padilla, who lived in Utah, and Brian Diemer (Michigan) and Joan Benoit (Maine). Bob Sevene was the main AW coach. Two of us ran the lab and there were several others who provided other services (massage, equipment, travel, etc.). One day in July (as I remember, it was in July), we were advised that the building would be closed and we should remove all our equipment. Fortunately, I had already decided to go back to college coaching (to begin that fall in Cortland, NY) but all the others who worked in that facility in Eugene, were terminated that day, but I can not speak for any deals any of them may have had that I was unaware of. I had a good time at AW, and we learned a lot in the lab

Les wrote:

Athletics West was NOT "active until 1990." The building was closed and all employees terminated very shortly after Jeff Drenth died in the AW bathroom in 1986. From a former employee posting on Lets Run...

Wrong, AW won the 1989 USA Cross Country Team Champions. How does an inactive group accomplish a victory post-closure?

A new BBC story: Questions mount over Alberto Salazar's links to Mary Slaney

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/athletics/33096367

There is an image of the article from the time when Salazar WAS Slaney's coach.

Les, you are not getting the timeline here. Athletics West as a TAC registered club was active until 1990. As a club based in Eugene (after Drenth's death, and the mysterious fire in the club headquarters) that part was shut down in 1986, with all employees fired and most of the athlete contracts not renewed.

The big fish were kept, the minnows were released.

It makes no sense NOW to proclaim that Slaney's drug test wasn't valid after she already tested positive, had her appeal denied AND served a ban. You might as well be Ben Johnson or O.J. Simpson proclaiming his innocence -- no one will believe you. Easier NOW to try to sever your relationship with Slaney altogether. Probablem is there's too much evidence to contrary. The most damning evidence is Salazar's own words in his own autobiography that he was Slaney's coach.

It's a shame Rojo, since you say you were asking Salazar the same questions Epstein did years ago, that you chose not to write an article about it. Letsrun, not Epstein/Propublica would have been the one quoted in dozens of other publications and there would probably have been a massive spike in website hits. I understand Goucher/Magness approached Epstein but you could have approached ex-NOP members to dig into the doping rumors.

Guardian

The head of UK Athletics has conceded there were questions over how effectively the governing body scrutinised Alberto Salazar before he became Mo Farah’s coach. While insisting that due diligence had taken place before Farah moved to the prestigious Nike Oregon Project running group in 2011, Ed Warner admitted that he was not yet sure whether it was “good and effective”.

One of the key issues is the precise relationship between Salazar and the US track athlete Mary Slaney at the time she failed a drugs test in 1996. Last weekend Farah revealed that Salazar had told him he wasn’t coaching Slaney when she tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone. Ian Stewart, UKA’s former head of endurance, also claimed on Thursday he “knows for a fact” that Salazar had “never coached” Slaney.

Les wrote:

It's a shame Rojo, since you say you were asking Salazar the same questions Epstein did years ago, that you chose not to write an article about it. Letsrun, not Epstein/Propublica would have been the one quoted in dozens of other publications and there would probably have been a massive spike in website hits. I understand Goucher/Magness approached Epstein but you could have approached ex-NOP members to dig into the doping rumors.

Rojo is no David Epstein. He doesn't organize his thoughts well nor does he think 5 moves ahead. As with the ARod scandal, you need an experienced journalist who actually plans his next move.

BBC's undue diligence wrote:

Les, you are not getting the timeline here. Athletics West as a TAC registered club was active until 1990. As a club based in Eugene (after Drenth's death, and the mysterious fire in the club headquarters) that part was shut down in 1986, with all employees fired and most of the athlete contracts not renewed.

The big fish were kept, the minnows were released.

AW might have been a registered track club with TAC until 1990, but for all intents and purposes it was not "active" as a track club after Drenth's death. With no employees, no coaches and only a few athletes under contract, it was a track club in name only. Were there any athletes representing AW after 1986 besides Slaney and the by-then washed-up Salazar? Was Benoit still running for them by then?

Epstein/ProPublica update:

http://www.propublica.org/article/more-athletes-say-track-coach-alberto-salazar-broke-drug-rules

Epstein says he now as 17 current and former athletes on record stating that Salazar has coached them to fail test to get prescriptions, and that Salazar had his own 'pharmacy' of drugs he'd hand out himself. One former athlete had 5 thyroid tests in a month until they got a result that could get a prescription even though that athlete was in a 'normal' ranch, but not optimal.

Randy Oldman wrote:

Guardian

Ian Stewart, UKA’s former head of endurance, also claimed on Thursday he “knows for a fact” that Salazar had “never coached” Slaney.

What was Ian Stewart's claim about Farah 'not actually training' with Hamza Driouch?

Les wrote:

AW might have been a registered track club with TAC until 1990, but for all intents and purposes it was not "active" as a track club after Drenth's death.

So that 1989 USA National XC championship didn't actually happen.... LOL

Alice.... wrote:

Les wrote:

It's a shame Rojo, since you say you were asking Salazar the same questions Epstein did years ago, that you chose not to write an article about it. Letsrun, not Epstein/Propublica would have been the one quoted in dozens of other publications and there would probably have been a massive spike in website hits. I understand Goucher/Magness approached Epstein but you could have approached ex-NOP members to dig into the doping rumors.

Rojo is no David Epstein. He doesn't organize his thoughts well nor does he think 5 moves ahead. As with the ARod scandal, you need an experienced journalist who actually plans his next move.

Which is my problem with most sports "journalists." Most are more fans than professional journalists. When the occasional real-world issue impinges on the basically fantasy world of sports, they are unequipped or unwilling to deal with them. In the steroids era of baseball, players would show up for spring training sporting an additional 20 lbs of muscle they put on during the off-season, something impossible without drugs. Yet, with the evidence literally in front of them, not ONE baseball beat writer chose to investigate the phenomenon.

Les wrote:

AW might have been a registered track club with TAC until 1990, but for all intents and purposes it was not "active" as a track club after Drenth's death. With no employees, no coaches and only a few athletes under contract, it was a track club in name only. Were there any athletes representing AW after 1986 besides Slaney and the by-then washed-up Salazar? Was Benoit still running for them by then?

Of course it was "active" with many National Champions in the 1986-89 fadeout. They released all of the aspiring runners (those whose best hope was to make a national championship final) and kept those who were legitimate contenders for National Championships, or World Rankings.