-explosive and powerful video essay by Mary Cain in The New York Times regarding her time as part of the Nike Oregon Project. A full transcript of Cain's comments can be found here. Highlights include:
"I joined Nike because I wanted to be the best female athlete ever. Instead, I was emotionally and physically abused by a system designed by Alberto and endorsed by Nike. This is what happened to me... Alberto was constantly trying to get me to lose weight. He created an arbitrary number of 114 pounds and would usually weigh me in front of my teammates and publicly shame if I wasn’t hitting weight. He wanted to give me birth control pills and diuretics to lose weight -- the latter of which isn’t allowed in track and field...Alberto yelled at me in front of everybody else at the meet. He told me that I had clearly gained five pounds before the race. It was also that night that I told Alberto and our sports psych that I was cutting myself and they pretty much told me that they just wanted to go to bed....First, Nike needs to change. In track and field, Nike is all-powerful. They control the top coaches, athletes, races, even the governing body. You can’t just fire a coach and eliminate a program and pretend the problem is solved. My worry is that Nike is merely going to rebrand the old program and put Alberto’s old assistant coaches in charge. Secondly, we need more women in power. Part of me wonders if I had worked with more female psychologists, nutritionists and even coaches, where I’d be today. I got caught in a system designed by and for men which destroys the bodies of young girls. Rather than force young girls to fend for themselves, we have to protect them."
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