In "Fourteen Minutes," Salazar and his coauthor, John Brant, write that Salazar finished seventh in the 1984 world cross country championships, which were held at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. But Salazar did not even run in the race. He qualified for the US team at the cross country trials the month before, where he finished eighth. The trials were held on the same course as the actual championships, and Salazar apparently later confused his eighth-place finish at the trials for seventh at the championships. His coauthor did not bother to fact-check this dubious assertion.
I say "dubious" because most Americans who followed the sport in the 1980s are familiar with this race. American Pat Porter led for much of it, whittling down his competition to just Tim Hutchings, Steve Jones, and 37-year-old Carlos Lopes, who made a decisive move with a bit more than a mile to go to win his second title (his first was in 1976). American Ed Eyestone was sixth. Salazar's statement that he finished seventh is magical thinking.
Here is what Salazar (and John Brant) wrote:
A few months earlier, in March, I had competed in the world cross-country championships, held that year in the United States in the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Our baby was due at about the same time. Molly went into labor during my final preparations for the race, and Alex was born the day before the championships. I stayed in Oregon until the last possible moment, then caught a red-eye flight and arrived in New Jersey about 4 hours before the race....I finished seventh but twisted my knee in the process, an injury that would dog me for the rest of the year. (p. 140)
In reality, Salazar's son was born the day before the cross country trials, which were held in February. It's strange that Salazar would mistakenly write that his son was born in March. These glaring errors make me wonder how much else of Salazar's "autobiography" is fiction. John Brant, his coauthor, apparently swallowed everything Salazar fed to him.
What remains unanswered is why Salazar did not race in the championships after qualifying for the national team. Maybe it was because of the twisted knee or maybe it was because his training wasn't going well, so he knew he would not race well. This issue normally would have been clarified in an autobiography. But since he falsely claims that he placed seventh in the 1984 world cross country championships, he can't very well explain why he decided not to race in those same championships.
Here's a good summary of the cross country trials in February 1984. Pat Porter annihilated the field in 34:47. In the actual championships--on the same course--he ran 33:34 to finish fourth.
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/20/sports/porter-easily-wins-crosscountry-trial.html