Tara Welling has written a piece for us on her experiences with weight and the culture during her time with the Nike Oregon Project (2012-14). She says that she went from 100 to 88 pounds within months of joining the group as she battled an eating disorder and that Alberto Salazar encouraged her to gain weight and set her weight targets she had to hit before she could race again.
She also said she was weighed and had her body fat measured frequently and that her time there was a "constant comparison battle" when it came to her body.
"Alberto constantly said I should look like Kara Goucher and Genzebe Dibaba. He also said I should be 100 lbs with a low body fat percentage, but muscular. It was confusing and I found it mentally difficult when I had to lose weight and look like other runners when I was not them."
We appreciate Tara sharing her story. Full story here:
https://www.letsrun.com/news/2019/11/tara-welling-shares-her-experiences-regarding-weight-as-a-member-of-the-nike-oregon-project/
Tara Welling on the culture of NOP: "weight was...embedded into the training process...it was a constant comparison battle"
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Wait a minute. Alberto told an athlete she needed to gain weight before she could run? That doesn’t go well with the current narrative...
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Seems to be a easy case of a runner that was just not good enough and such had to be perfect in the weight department, which she than also screw up. As a results she is basically a hobbyjogger.
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Please have her write a companion takedown piece about being coached by JMar.
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JMar wanted to initially tell the story?
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Alberto set weight goals for me: first 95 lbs, then 98 lbs, and I would be allowed to race the USATF 5k and 10k road champs that fall if I hit those numbers. Alberto was very concerned about my weight and took me to the store to get high-calorie, nutrient-dense foods that would fuel me for my runs and help me gain healthy weight. I was told that when we got back to the States, he would help me get connected with a nutritionist, therapist, and doctors to keep me on track and help me get healthy, and I did eventually meet with a nutritionist and a therapist.
What a MONSTER!
How awful of him!
Throughout college, I dealt with an eating disorder, but it never spiraled out of control until the summer/fall of 2012, my first year with the Oregon Project.
The delusion of this statement is amazing.
It's a shame that personal responsibility is a thing of the past. -
This was actually finally a good article for Alberto. He actively got Tara help and didn’t let her race until she gained weight. Yet in your summary above you portray it like it was entirely negative, which it wasn’t. Why not include the good parts?
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Tara’s husband works for Nike.
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BadSummary wrote:
This was actually finally a good article for Alberto. He actively got Tara help and didn’t let her race until she gained weight. Yet in your summary above you portray it like it was entirely negative, which it wasn’t. Why not include the good parts?
I agree it’s a really bad summary. Letsrun has been under fire over negative comments made about women by some posters here, though. Mentioning the positives about Alberto isn’t going to play well to the people criticizing. -
You know what's up
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Conspiracy theorists may note that Font Romeu is 30 miles from Andorra.
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Wait a minute. Why isn’t Skechers catching grief for cancelling her sponsorship co-incident with her having a baby?
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Overall positive for Alberto this time around. The impression I have of him is that he would make an educated guess for ideal weight and then doggedly pursue it beyond what might be reasonable.
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BadSummary wrote:
This was actually finally a good article for Alberto. He actively got Tara help and didn’t let her race until she gained weight. Yet in your summary above you portray it like it was entirely negative, which it wasn’t. Why not include the good parts?
Thread title is a little misleading as well. -
BadSummary wrote:
This was actually finally a good article for Alberto. He actively got Tara help and didn’t let her race until she gained weight. Yet in your summary above you portray it like it was entirely negative, which it wasn’t. Why not include the good parts?
Did you read the summary? We mentioned that he encouraged her to gain weight and didn't let her race until she did.
We're not trying to hide anything here. If we were, we wouldn't have published the article at all. -
You have a subconscious bias. If you are going to mention her weight loss just months after joining NOP, you should have included the most important point being this was due to stress from her mother's illness. A simple statement to clarify would suffice, but you left this out. Many people will only read your summary and you know that and left out that key fact purposely or subconsciously. Sorry, but you come across as very disingenuous.
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Ha ha, AS would know about weight loss. They had to give him 6 liters after one marathon. That’s almost 13 pounds of fluid. Yeah, let’s make that guy a coach!
Very short, troubled career for such a talent. -
Jonathan Gault wrote:
BadSummary wrote:
This was actually finally a good article for Alberto. He actively got Tara help and didn’t let her race until she gained weight. Yet in your summary above you portray it like it was entirely negative, which it wasn’t. Why not include the good parts?
Did you read the summary? We mentioned that he encouraged her to gain weight and didn't let her race until she did.
We're not trying to hide anything here. If we were, we wouldn't have published the article at all.
There was a lot of positives for Salazar in that write-up and you guys titled the thread in a way that made it seem like the summary was negative. Not a big deal, but just my thoughts on that.
I'm really glad he told her to GAIN weight before she competed as 88 pounds is very light at 5'4. I think this speaks to him not only telling runners they need to loose weight but gain weight when necessary. In his responses he repeatedly emphasis reaching a good performance and race weight regardless of which side you're coming from. She validates that he did provide resources for her. This is a +1 for Salazar in my opinion, but other stories I'd consider a -1 for him. I would love to hear stories of Rowbury and Moser, but I doubt they would go public. It didn't really seem like they cared or never struggled to reach Salazar's goal weight. -
Wow 5'4'' and 88 lbs is serious medical problem territory--like residential ED treatment facility level.
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You could have highlighted any one of the positive parts of the article, but you chose to dwell on the negative.
"Alberto was very concerned about my weight and took me to the store to get high-calorie, nutrient-dense foods that would fuel me for my runs and help me gain healthy weight. I was told that when we got back to the States, he would help me get connected with a nutritionist, therapist, and doctors to keep me on track and help me get healthy, and I did eventually meet with a nutritionist and a therapist."
You could have put any of the above in the title, but no, you went the other way so that it fits your narrative and your judgement on Alberto, NOP, and Nike.
