David Epstein/Pro Publica/BBC Story: Former Team Members Accuse Famed Coach Alberto Salazar of Breaking Drug Rules

From their statements issued tonight, we see:

Salazar's statement reads:

"I believe in a clean sport and hard work, and so do my athletes. Apparently that is not interesting enough for some. I am very disappointed that the BBC and ProPublica and their 'reporters' have allowed themselves to be used by individuals with agendas and have engaged in such inaccurate and unfounded journalism. Rather than present the facts, they opted for sensationalism and innuendo. It is particularly sad that they have attacked Galen and his excellent reputation, which he has earned through years of hard work."

Rupp's statement reads:

"I am very disappointed in the BBC and ProPublica. I am dedicated to clean sport and have worked extemely hard for every accomplishment in my running career. I expressly told these reporters that these allegations were not true and their sources admit they have no evidence, yet they print "suspicions" attacking me and sullying my reputation. That is inexcusable, irresponsible journalism."

It's always baffled me as to why someone who is doing something 'suspect' plays their cards close to their chests, you'd think they'd brag about it.

[quote]Duck and Cover wrote:Ok, answer the question I've asked several times: why is it that the only evidence Magness provided was the purported record of Rupp listing one item from a 2002 entry? If the cheating was so rampant and Magness had access to records (all the way back to 2002) Why the dearth of evidence?

Who is to say Magness showed the BBC all his evidence? Seems very likely in 18 months he did not photograph only one document. You think Magness is going to flash all his cards in the first ten minutes of the game? You don't think Magness may have sought some legal advice before stepping forward about a corporation worth many billions of dollars?

Hey Alberto, most experts agree ALS has no impact on mental function.

rupp-certified saladbar wrote:

"Salazar immediately impugned the sanity of longtime Nike lab physiologist, Loren Myhre, and suggested that Myhre's battle with ALS must have diminished his faculties. (Myhre passed away in 2012, but the record Magness asked about was from 2002, a year when Myrhe was given an award by Nike for his work, according to an obituary.) Salazar said Myhre was "crazy and he must be mixing it up with something else," Magness says."

Typical Armstrong.

I mean Salazar.

LOL good one:)

sad that Jeff Sheibler's Canadian record was lost to these cheaters. Knew Levins would break it soon after seeing how skinny his face looked.

Chet Manly wrote:

Finally is the doping that Salazar being accused of doing more a grey area? We know that athletes testosterone levels are different - if the max level is x, Runner A's level lower at y, and Rupp even lower at z, is it really cheating bringing it up to y (the same as Runner A and still lower than the max level?) Same with the thyroid medication, I'm guessing they are using at a low enough level not to trigger a positive drug test - so if it's at a legal level is it still cheating? These are all tough questions that I don't think are as black and white as people are saying.

Look, this gray area stuff is happening and the athletes won't admit they're doing it. Legal or not, on some level they know it's wrong.

The big difference between me and the most part of posters here (and people not working with top athletes, generally) is that you are influenced by "numbers" while I prefer to analyze the reasons, knowing at some background people don't know (or don't care).

About Rita : she started with me in 1998, when only 17, running short distances. At that time was more heavy, and nobody thought she can become a Marathon runner. I had some doubt, too. However, I discovered she had a very high natural endurance, expecially mentally, and was a very, very hard worker. Also if she had a brain of a little hen (she was very easy to be influenced by everybody, and I think this was at the base of her last stupid decision), I never had any athlete able to work so hard and with so much continuity. She started her first Marathon in Stockholm 2004, winning in 2:35, and at the end of the season won Milan in 2:28. The next year went to WCh in Helsinki, and already ran 2:24:32.

In 2006, she prepared Boston in my training camp in Iten, and was, of sure, in the best shape ever, but there were problems with her Visa, and the management had almost to cancel Boston. Like a miracle, one day before Boston it was possible to have the Visa. She was in Italy, could take the flight on Sunday night, arrived in Boston 6 hours before the race, and won with 2:23:38 RUNNING THE LAST 12.195 METERS FASTER THAN ALL THE MEN IN TOP 10. It's not difficult to believe she could already run in 2:21 with even pace and normal approach to the race.

After that period, she married, and her problems started, since her husband wanted to become her coach, and she needed to train at home. No more good results, and she had a baby in 2009.

She changed manager, moving from Gianni Demadonna to Federico Rosa, and started again, with normal results, till the beginning of 2012 (6th in Boston with 2:35:53). She had problems with the husband, and finally, after Boston, she left him, moving to Kapsabet for training with Priscah Jeptoo and Jemima Jelagat.

The fact to have now a Group, homogeneous, for training, and a good coach (Claudio Berardelli), together with her attitude to work very hard, produced the first step in Chicago (2nd with 2:22:04).

A full winter of continuous and proper training could bring her at the same level of 2006 : she won a slow Boston in 2013 (2:26:25), and exploded in Chicago winning in 2:19:57. That year, also if no more with me in training, I met her several times, I spoke with her and with Claudio, and he told me all the Group was stimulated to have continuity and everybody was in strong improvement, so for me it was not a surprise her time in Chicago 2013.

We need to look at the full result :

Rita (1) 2:19:57 (improvement of 2:07 with the previous PB)

Jemima Jelagat (2) 2:20:48 (improvement PB of 2:39)

Konovalova (3) 2:22:46 (improvement PB of 57.0)

Duliba (4) 2:23:44 (improvement PB of 2:24)

So, the race was very well paced, and Rita had the usual ability to finish faster. Nothing of strange, she Always had this gap with the other.

Now, we are in Boston 2014, when she won with 2:18:57.

The real secret of this race was the fast pace of Shalane Flanagan, that allowed every athlete to improve their best :

Rita (1) 2:18:57 (improvement of 1:00)

Bezunesh Deba (2) 2:19:59 (improvement of 3:20)

Mare Dibaba (3) 2:20:35 (her 2nd performance after PB in Dubai in 2:19:52)

Jemima Jelagat (4) 2:20:41 (improvement of 7:0)

Melkamu (5) 2:21:28 (coming back at the best level after 3 bad marathons)

Duliba (6) 2:21:29 (improvement of 2:15)

Flanagan (7) 2:22:02 (improvement of 3:36)

For all those reasons, I don't see notheing of strange in Rita's performances, and of sure I don't connect it with doping, otherwise we need to think ALL THE ATHLETES RUNNING WITH HER WERE DOPED, looking at the entity of their improvements.

I don't like to decide looking at numbers : this is not an anlysis, but a supposition made not with the brain, but with the belly.

Since I well know where it's possible to arrive when clean (for example, the 3 WR in the same race of Florence Kiplagat in February), and every time I still can find some particular where it's possible to have further improvements, I have a different vision of the human possibilities and of the results good (but not top) athletes can achieve.

So, I don't need to show evidence that some doped could run at the same speed without doping. Instead, some of these "scientists with advanced degree" need to show some evidence that, without doping, is not possible to better many WR (at the moment, my athletes have WR in 3000 steeple, 25000m, 30000m Men, and 15 km, 20 km and HM women).

Renato,

With all due respect, such an analysis "made with the belly" is ridiculous. 1.) You don't know how long Rita had been doping. 2.) I can make an argument that her 1 minute improvement was in fact greater than everyone else's because of the courses they ran and the faster time (at the limits of human performance there are more incremental improvements, etc. etc.)

Cycling and running has shown that top athletes do respond to drugs, blood doping in particular. Many argue that we aren't seeing world records broken as they were in the last 2 decades because enforcement has improved. Runners are slower because they aren't able to dope like they used to.

Chet Manly - can you explain why Abebe Bikila won the Olympic Marathon barefoot in a WR? Or how Kip Keino won the 1968 Gold Medal, beating Jim Ryun in his prime? Or what about Henry Rono breaking like 4 WRs in 81 days as a college athlete? And all of this was before the sport became organized with good training programs, tons of athletes training at high levels etc..

I don't exactly think Renato has anything to gain from coming onto Letsrun.com to speak about his coaching experience, but I sure as hell never seen Alberto come on here. The Africans definitely had something unique from the start which I think is tied to genetics. Even today, Edward Cheserek can toy around with the top college athletes and I'm not exactly thinking he's under some doping regiment. Just more talent.

Lance had a lot of the same parallels as Alberto as far as sports psychology - win at all cost, hold cards closely to the chest. Also, both seemed to have bad relationships with all athletes/personnel they were associated with. Not the same with Renato at all. He has been free to speak on the subject at will. You can agree or not agree with his points, but they are far from ridiculous.

Salazar and Rupp have decided to go down with the NOP ship. This was as expected. These releases were written by the same attorney, but not a Nike attorney. Maybe the same attorney who help Armstrong deny everything.

Excellent point! Salazar is a fraud and a pretend-catholic. He spoke at the Newman center's annual webfoot gala Friday night right before doper Rupp was due to race and he spoke about prayer and how Rupp prays and that's why they're beating the crap out of Kenyans and Ethiopians after 40 years of un-interrupted African dominance...

People on both sides will want to make this black and white, but it won't be.

Salazar is probably completely convinced that he's not breaking any rules. In his mind, these thyroid and apparently testosterone enhancements are just 'bringing levels back up to normal' or something, and as long as you don't test positive you're not breaking the rules. Some of his crew and fans are probably brainwashed into this point of view too.

So this scandal is really about each person deciding for themselves what is ethically right and wrong in sport, and where to draw the line. To me, they're way over the line, and I think many people agree. But I'm guessing that Salazar never did something that he considers "cheating" in his own mind, and since he probably knows the WADA rules pretty well, it will be really tough to find an actual smoking gun here.

The AlSal shills are going to end up looking exactly like the Lance shills of 2012.

When will they ever learn...

Nike=corruption

Retrograde wrote:

Pongkan et al. Roles of Testosterone Replacement in Cardiac Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury. J Cardiovasc Pharmacol Ther. 2015 May 26

"At present, it may be concluded that chronic testosterone replacement at a physiological dose demonstrated cardioprotective effects, whereas acute testosterone replacement can cause adverse effects in the I/R heart."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26015457

Yes, it's perfectly reasonable that Salazar would be taking testosterone, legally Rx'd to him, if his own testosterone levels are low. Low testosterone levels do increase risks of health problems, including heart problems, although other problems--osteoporosis, sarcopenia (excessive muscle loss with aging), type 2 diabetes, depression, are more widely discussed and perhaps more common.

There are risks associated with Rx testosterone--estrogen can be raised too much (increasing risk of clotting problems), hematocrit can go too high--but these are easily monitored and can be dealt with. One can take Anastrozole (Arimidex) or lower ones dose of testosterone for the former; one can give blood (or have a therapeutic phlebotomy if one cannot give blood for some reason, such as having HIV) or lower ones dose of testosterone for the latter.

Pretty Much identical quotes between the two. In fact, when matched up, Galen only offers a few words that aren't in Al's quotes. I've matched them up similar statements...Al: clean sport and hard workGalen: to clean sport and have worked extemely hard A: unfounded journalismG: irresponsible journalismA: attacked Galen and his excellent reputationG: attacking me and sullying my reputationA: I am very disappointed that the BBC and ProPublicaG: I am very disappointed in the BBC and ProPublicaA: Rather than present the facts, they opted for sensationalism and innuendoG: their sources admit they have no evidence, yet they print "suspicions"After these direct cuts....here are the only words Galen has...that are different than Al's quote:I am dedicated for every accomplishment in my running career. I expressly told these reporters that these allegations were not true and . That is inexcusable,Totally written by the same lawyer, who didn't even take the time to change up the quotes.

And Finns were the best distance runners in the early seventies, and East German and Czech's were the best 400/800 runners ever, and Chinese runners are the greatest middle distance runners ever.

I'm not debating that East Africans are the best distance runners - I don't think anyone would argue with that. However we do know that EPO use was almost universal in cycling from the 80's until probably the late 2000's - it stands to reason that runners were using it as well. And most of the distance records were set during this time: 1500, mile, 3000, 5000, 10000, steeple - most by East Africans. So it's very likely that some (or realistically all) of those WR holders were using EPO. So EPO does work for East African yet Canova says it doesn't. Maybe he's right but I suspect that the overwhelming majority of Letsrun readers believe that it does. And considering the steeple record was set in 2004 during the height of EPO use, I'm not sure I'd be bragging about coaching that athlete.

Phenom Man wrote:

If Magness was actually chosen to be Salazar's assistant coach, he would have known about the the possible PED use in it's entirety. The fact that in his entire time there he only has one piece of evidence supporting his claims makes me suspicious. You would think that the assistant coach would have a more inside look at the happenings behind the scenes. He would have been there for many workouts, meetings, talks with Alberto that would have given him a more concrete insight as to what was happening. We know Alberto has all his athletes on Thyroid medication. We know this. The possibility of microdosing is very real but there's just no evidence to support this.

I keep seeing this argument that Magness would "have to know" more about the doping protocol as an assistant, or that he would have had "unlimited access" to all sorts of files. These arguments don't pass the smell test. On Magness' first day they weren't going to take him into a lab and say "here are all the drugs we take along with dosing schedules."

In fact, the way Magness explains it seems more realistic in that Alberto slowly tried to groom him to determine whether he would be OK with his methods. Asking Magness to go over historic blood values that mention Rupp took testosterone and then having a convenient excuse if it doesn't fly seems like something a manipulator would do.

The whole "Testoboost" supplement excuse is patent BS. Why would a no-name useless supplement marketed to unwitting rubes be included along with a legit pharmaceutical like prednisone on the medical report? Remember, Alberto used to consult with Victor Conte, and his whole MO was to give the top athletes designer steroids while attributing all their success to plain old ZMA. Seems like Al was taking one out of that handbook here.

OMG.