Nike Oregon Project shut down following Alberto Salazar doping scandal

Salazar was handed a four-year ban two weeks ago.
Getty Images

The Nike Oregon Project headed up by head coach Alberto Salazar has been shut down following his four-year ­suspension after being found guilty of doping violations.

The Project guided a host of athletes to Olympic and World titles including Britain’s Mo Farah, with the man behind its inception, Salazar, central to a United States Anti-Doping investigation for more than six years.

The fall-out from Salazar’s demise has already been felt in Britain, with UK Athletics performance director Neil Black axed earlier this week in the wake of the World Championships after ­publicly backing the American in the past both as a coach to Farah and also as a consultant for Britain’s wider endurance athletics programme.

Now the Project has been shut down altogether, despite Nike previously saying it would back Salazar in an appeal against his ban.

Getty Images

In a memo to staff published by ­Runner’s World magazine, Nike chief executive Mark Palmer wrote: “This situation, along with ­on-going unsubstantiated assertions, is a ­distraction for many of the athletes and is compromising their ability to focus on their training and competition needs. I have therefore decided to wind down the Oregon Project.”

The decision comes less than two weeks after Salazar along with NOP consultant Dr Jeffrey Brown were handed four-year bans for doping offences.

Following Palmer’s memo, the website for the NOP has been taken down along with the project’s Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts.

It had come under increasing ­pressure to be closed, with one of its former athletes Kara Goucher, who turned into a key whistle-blower in the case against Salazar, saying: “It has to go.”

The American, who trained under Salazar between 2004 and 2011, added: “If I was Nike, I’d be bringing in some new coaches and move on from this Oregon Project because clearly it had principles not in line with clean sport, and we just have to start over. They need to shut it down and give athletes a chance to train under someone new and fresh.”

Despite the NOP, set up in Oregon in 2001, being axed, Palmer said he and Nike would be backing its roster of athletes based at the Project to “choose the coaching set-up right for them”.

Despite the ban for Salazar following two independent arbitration panels and a two-and-a-half year legal fight since he was first charged by USADA, Nike told Bloomberg last night that it “will continue to support Alberto in his appeal”.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in