Alberto Salazar: Four-Year Doping Ban for the Distance Running Coach – The New York Times

Alberto Salazar, a coach of some of the world’s top distance runners, has been barred for four years from the sport for doping violations, the United States Anti-Doping Agency announced Monday night.

The ban resulted from violations including trafficking in testosterone, tampering with the doping control process and administering improper infusions of L-carnitine, a naturally occurring substance that converts fat into energy, the anti-doping agency said in a statement.

As head coach of the Nike Oregon Project, Salazar, 61, has trained such stars as Mo Farah of Britain, a four-time Olympic champion on the track; Galen Rupp, the top American marathon runner; and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who set a world record in the women’s mile in July and over the weekend finished first in the 10,000 meters at the world track and field championships in Doha, Qatar. Farah stopped training with Salazar in 2017.

Salazar was a star distance runner himself, winning the New York City Marathon three times.

Jeffrey Brown, an endocrinologist from Houston who has worked with Salazar, also received a four-year ban, Usada said. Both have denied wrongdoing.

Representatives for Salazar, Brown and Nike could not immediately be reached for comment.

Travis Tygart, the chief executive of the anti-doping agency, said in a statement that Salazar and Brown had “demonstrated that winning was more important than the health and well-being of the athletes they were sworn to protect.”