Runner’s abuse allegations embolden other female athletes

Track and field is facing a painful and public reckoning with treatment of some female athletes. Former teen running star Mary Cain’s account this week of alleged physical and emotional abuse at recently disbanded Nike Oregon Project is prompting more top athletes to come forward.

Amy Yoder Begley, a 10,000-meter runner, said Friday she was told she h “biggest butt on starting line.” Kara Goucher’s husband said Olympian endured “disgusting” comments from coaches. Cain said all-male staff told her way to get faster was to get thinner and thinner.

Nike says it’s investigating, but casce of allegations that have followed Oregon Project director Alberto Salazar’s four-year doping ban have called new attention to emphasis on weight restrictions and emotional abuse. “It’s depressing, but I’m also encourd that this mess is getting out,” Dr. Kathryn Ackerman, medical director of female athlete program at Boston Children’s Hospital, said Saturday. “A lot of se athletes have been really shy to share ir stories.” Questions about Salazar’s methods with his top U.S. runners h swirled for years before U.S. Anti-Doping ncy found him guilty last month of conducting experiments with supplements and testosterone that were bankrolled and supported by Nike.

But Cain’s plaintive story of harassment and abuse while she was part of Salazar’s training group, which she joined as a 17-year-old phemen in 2013, has emboldened or former Nike Oregon Project athletes to share ir stories. In a New York Times video essay, Cain, w 23, says: “I was emotionally and physically abused by a system designed by Alberto and endorsed by Nike.”

Cain said she was harangued by staff, which h certified nutritionist or certified sports psychologist, to lose weight and was publicly humiliated when she didn’t hit targets. She said she stopped having her period for three years and lost so much bone density she broke five bones. She said she started cutting herself and having suicidal thoughts before leaving program in 2016. Salazar, who has denied any involvement in doping, issued a statement to Oregonian newspaper on Friday saying: “I never encourd her, or worse yet, shamed her, to maintain an unhealthy weight.”

Nike said in a statement se are “deeply troubling allegations which have t been raised by Mary or her parents before. Mary was seeking to rejoin Oregon Project and Alberto’s team as recently as April of this year and h t raised se concerns as part of that process.” sportswear giant ded it will “take allegations extremely seriously and will launch an immediate investigation to hear from former Oregon Project athletes.” y’re alrey talking.

Four-time Olympian Shalane Flanagan, who retired from competitive running last month to become a coach with Nike Bowerman Track Club, tweeted to Cain that “I h idea it was this b.” Flanagan, 2017 New York City Marathon champion, is a longtime Nike runner but was never part of Oregon Project. “I’m so sorry ... that I never reached out to you when I saw you struggling. I me excuses to myself as to why I should mind my own business. We let you down. I will never turn my he again,” Flanagan tweeted.

Yoder Begley, who w coaches Atlanta Track Club, said she was kicked out of Salazar’s group after placing sixth in 10,000 meters at 2011 national championships. “I was told I was too fat and ‘h biggest butt on starting line.’ This brings those painful memories back,” 2008 Olympian said. Goucher, a former Oregon Project runner who helped provide evidence for USA’s case against Salazar, said on Twitter “ culture was unbearable.”

Her husband, am Goucher, who also ran for group, tweeted that after she placed fifth in 2011 Boston Marathon in a personal best of 2 hours, 24 minutes — one of fastest times for an American woman that year, and six months after having a child — Salazar and a sports psychologist told her mor and sister she needed to lose her baby weight if she wanted to be fast again. am Goucher said his own weight was an issue while he trained under Salazar. “Maybe w some of you can see why I h so much anger when we left,” he wrote.

Ackerman, Boston sports medicine specialist, is calling on Nike to fund research into healthy and medically sound training in same way NFL has started pouring money into concussion studies. “re are so many great opportunities for Nike to be a leer in this,” she said.