Nike renames Alberto Salazar building after SafeSport bans him for life

You had to know that Nike would cave to outside pressure after they renamed the Joe Paterno Child Grooming Center and the Lance Armstrong Performance Enhancement Center.

I don't think that Al Sal would be banned for life were he not a massive prick, which might be unfair, but I hardly feel bad for him.

Ernest wrote:

tycobb wrote:

It wasn't just one complaint from that took him down. Multiple complaints and doping.

If you pressure female runners into losing weight you shouldn't be coaching.

What's the takeaway here? It's accepable for a coach to pressure male runners into losing weight?

Define "pressure", Define "fat-shaming" Define "verbal abuse".

These all can easily be taken out of context. If you're in a profession that requires you to be at an optimal weight, and for some reason, you're overweight and it's having a negative effect on your training and performances, what is a coach supposed to do? What is the proper and "nice" way to inform the athlete that they're too heavy? or fat? I don't think there is any good way to convey this to an athlete, just as there's no good way to tell them they're running too slow or that they under-performed. If you're a professional athlete, getting paid, getting free gear, and world-class coaching, and can't tell the difference between a "personal" abusive comment from a "professional" constructive comment you need to find a new profession. This is par for the course and not always easy to take. If the criticism is too abusive and or you feel is disrespectful confront the coach and communicate that...like a true professional. The coach's reaction will tell you what you're dealing with, and then you can make an educated decision as to whether you stay or find a new coach. It's pretty simple.

I'm not defending Alberto if in fact he purposely made in-sensitive and abusive comments to demean and hurt his athletes, but you need to ask yourself was this his intent? It seems to be counter-productive and self-destructive, rather than just trying to get the best out of his athletes.

Ernest wrote:

tycobb wrote:

It wasn't just one complaint from that took him down. Multiple complaints and doping.

If you pressure female runners into losing weight you shouldn't be coaching.

What's the takeaway here? It's accepable for a coach to pressure male runners into losing weight?

Honestly, she was fat and she needed to lose weight. It should not be a crime to tell it like it is. If you want people to feed you lies to flatter you or protect your feelings, turn to your friends. But if you want to be an elite athlete and push your body to its full potential, we can't have that.

What “sexual misconduct” was he ever accused of? I missed that one.

Iron Bars wrote:

A life ban for vage "emotional abuse" is bogus. This is the sword the woke wield. His ban for shady doping stuff is fine, but this is ridiculous.

Yes, but this is at last the end of the Nike track empire, which Salazar built for them.

It roughly paralleled the US occupation of Afghanistan.

Nike drops Salazar = US withdraws from Afghanistan

The NY Times is claiming he was banned for sexual misconduct. This would be a new charge. What is the deal with that?

No one thinks that he got a lifetime ban merely for telling Mary Cain to lose weight, right?

delicious bass wrote:

The NY Times is claiming he was banned for sexual misconduct. This would be a new charge. What is the deal with that?

Two bans:

1) USADA: doping violations (old news)

2) Safesport: "Sexual Misconduct; Emotional Misconduct"

The actual contents of the Safesport ban aren't really known. We can conjecture that it has to do with Mary Cain, that's probably part of it. The truth is, we don't know.

Exactly - the investigation took over a year. and its details will not be published as per SafeSport policy, but of course Salazar and his lawyers had the chance to fight this in court (as cited in the original SafeSport/Salazar thread a few weeks ago). Plus, they can again fight this in arbitration, if they so choose.

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Free_the_thigh wrote:

Lol. Go take your “body positivity” to your local fun run doughnut dash.

Real athletes know that weight is an absolutely crucial performance aspect. Being one of the best in the world at something isn’t going to be comfortable.

That's not the issue. It's whether he chose a realistic weight for her and had her on a healthy diet.

“ If you pressure female runners into losing weight you shouldn't be coaching.”

Where in that post does it say anything about realistic or heathy weight? It was an absolute statement that was absolutely stupid.

Will we ever get the details of the accusations? Seems like AS or someone else would have come forward with the allegations beyond ' he said I looked fat'. Was there a monetary settlement by NIKE or AS along with a NDA? Charges filed? Anything?

As far as doping goes there are lots of doping coaches who are still coaching runners. Who was Flo Jo's coach? Who is he coaching now?

Seems pretty egregious to lump emotional misconduct in with sexual misconduct. Those are two different things. If someone is convicted of stealing you don’t say murder and stealing.

Given they won’t publish the details to clarify anything seems pretty broken to attach sexual misconduct to the ban if it never happened.

+1 - Sexual misconduct ? What ?! I think I heard once that Alberto made a “pass” toward Kara Goucher on a plane - no way this can be ever proved. Does this constitute flagrant sexual misconduct?

The way Alberto coached his athletes would be considered absolutely normal in some countries that I’ve lived and worked in in the past including China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. Repeat, absolutely normal and nothing out of the ordinary. In Japan all the athletes that I encountered weighed themselves several times a day and if they increased their weight by just a few grams the coach would put them on a diet. Most of the elite female athletes in Japan were sub 18 BMIs. this would be considered “under nourished” in the west.

The way Alberto has been treated is absolutely disgraceful in my opinion.

There are people who would kill themselves (commit suicide) over the type of allegations that Alberto has faced including the spurious one of “sexual misconduct.” Absolutely massive and heinous exaggeration it seems.

This is a sad day for sports in general. Alberto pushed the envelope but he did not deserve this.

casual obsever wrote:

Saladbar wrote:

That's exactly what I am thinking too.

You guys... even Nike is now finally dropping this abusive cheat, but here on letsrun, even people like that still have their fans.

Yes, even hell has its heroes

Like h$ll he doesn’t deserve it. There’s 4 decades of data points of him being a sh!tty human being. Miss me with the sob story for this scumbag.

the beagle wrote:

wazzu1452 wrote:

Dude you voted for Joe Biden? Right?

Why not just take out a Go-Fund-Me page if you are short on cash and can't take care of yourself?

https://www.ocregister.com/2019/07/31/democratic-candidates-peddle-free-stuff-for-everyone/

What are you talking about?

He's a right wing simpleton. Consequently he is doing what all weakling right wing simpletons do....they desperately run toward their pet sources to hand carry the latest deflective link, even if they have absolutely no clue what it means and it doesn't fit the topic at all.

Daily hilarity. This message board is particularly priceless. I relish their fear

spade detector wrote:

Like h$ll he doesn’t deserve it. There’s 4 decades of data points of him being a sh!tty human being. Miss me with the sob story for this scumbag.

I think many athletes, including Rupp, Ritzenheim, Farah, Hassan and others would disagree with your statement. All those athletes improved massively under his tutelage. This is undeniable. Many leading coaches are not necessarily “nice people.”

Ghost1 wrote:

spade detector wrote:

Like h$ll he doesn’t deserve it. There’s 4 decades of data points of him being a sh!tty human being. Miss me with the sob story for this scumbag.

I think many athletes, including Rupp, Ritzenheim, Farah, Hassan and others would disagree with your statement. All those athletes improved massively under his tutelage. This is undeniable. Many leading coaches are not necessarily “nice people.”

And yet there are many, many, many others in the sport who have associated with Alberto over the last 40 years that do agree with my statement. I'm not asking for nice - I'm asking for a decent human. He ain't it.