Alberto Salazar

At 65 years old, Alberto Salazar has this physical status:

Early life and running career

Salazar was born in Cuba and grew up in Wayland, Massachusetts. José, his father, a close friend of Fidel Castro and fellow Cuban revolutionary José Luis Castro, who became an opponent of the Communist government and a member of the anti-Castro movement, became a close associate of the opposition government and a supporter of the Communist party. In 1975, the younger Salazar was the state cross country champion. He trained with the well-known Greater Boston Track Club (where Bill Rodgers, Randy Thomas, and Greg Meyer were among Bill Rodgers' supporters), where he was given the nickname of "the rookie."

He came from Massachusetts and went to the University of Oregon, where he received many All-American awards, and in 1978, he captured the individual NCAA cross country championship. Salazar won the 1978 NCAA national cross country championship in cold, snowy weather, with the author of this story. Track & Field News Athlete of the Year Henry Rono was one of his year's few losses of the year. In a memorable tournament at Lehigh University in which Rono (28:19) and Salazar (28:28) ran the 3rd and 5th fastest 10,000-meter cross country times in NCAA championship history, he came in second second place to Rono. In over three decades of NCAA cross country competition, no one has been matched since then. He came in third third in the Olympic trials 10,000 meters in 28:10.42 to make the 1980 Olympic team (which didn't participate in the Olympics in Moscow due to the United States boycott) and one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals was awarded specifically for spurned athletes.

After fading to 10th place in the 1980 Falmouth Road Race, he died at the finish with a temperature of 107 degrees Fahrenheit (41.7 °C) and was read his last rites prematurely.

He ran an American indoor 5,000 meters record at 13:21.2, finishing second behind Suleiman Nyambui, who broke the indoor world record with a 13:20.3 time.

Salazar has won three straight New York City Marathons from 1980 to 1982. He completed his first marathon in 1980 in 2:09:41, the fastest American debut and second-fastest time run by a US runner (behind Bill Rodgers' 2:09:27 at Boston in 1979). Since winning, he was on Sports Illustrated's cover this week. Salazar set an Australian record of 2:08:13 in 1981 in Antwerp, Belgium, beating Australian Derek Clayton's record of 2:08:33. On re-measurement, the course was found to be about 148 meters shy of the 42.195 kilometers (26 miles, 385 yards) distance. This is equivalent to about 27 seconds.

After the epic head-to-head with Dick Beardsley in 1982, he won his first and only Boston Marathon. Salazar won the contest in a thrilling sprint finish but collapsed at the end before being rushed to an ambulance and given six liters of saline solution intravenously because he was not inebriated during the run. Salazar finished the year ranked #8 in the world in the marathon by Track & Field News magazine for his victories in Boston and New York, his second victory and course record there, as well as a third-place finish in the 5,000 meters, with three second-place finishes at Oslo (27:29.06).

Salazar was a hit in cross country competition, winning multiple All-American awards in both collegiate and national championships. Salazar was also the national cross country champion in 1979. He did a good job at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in 1982 and 1983, finishing second and fourth. His silver medal in 1982 marks the first time an American male has earned the podium in World Cross Country.

Salazar twice broke the American 10 km road record in 1983, with efforts of 28:02 and 28:01 at the Americas 10 km and Continental Homes 10 km respectively, a fourth-place finish (only one second behind the top three finishers) at the 1983 world cross country championships. In Track & Field News magazine's Top Rankers for 1983, he came in first place. In 1983, he was the 10,000-meter national track champion, emerging from Craig Virgin in the last straightaway at the U.S. championships in Indiana in June, winning his second straightaway title (the first appearance in 1981). However, he came last in the 10,000 meters at the World Track & Field Championships after suffering from bronchitis and being beaten for the first time in the marathon in April (2:10:08) and then fifth at Fukuoka in December (2:09:21). (The most recent year would have been the American Record for the next 17 years if you include the fact that obtaining the paperwork with the authorities was a pain.)

Salazar came in second place in the 10,000 meters at the Mt. in 1984, after a second-place finish. SAC Relays finished 2nd at the men's Olympic marathon trials (2:11:44) on Saturday to become a member of the United States Olympic Marathon Team, alongside Pete Phelper and John Tuttle. In the 1984 Summer Olympics, he was considered a favorite to win or medal, but he came in 15th in 2:14:19 under the scorching Los Angeles sun.

Salazar's competitive decline can be traced to the strain on his body after reading John Brant's eponymous book. Salazar admits he's fallen into a "more-is-better" attitude, leading him to believe that if 120 miles per week resulted in a certain degree of accomplishment, then 180 miles (290 km) or even 200 kilometers (320 km) would produce even better results. His immune system was destroyed as a result of the intensive and strenuous workouts, and he was often sick, injured, and otherwise unable to continue training.

Salazar, the 1988 Olympic Marathon Team, opened a successful restaurant in Eugene, Oregon. Although he was only able to stagger through four or five miles per hour, he remained fixated on training. "He couldn't run but he couldn't avoid running," Brant said. Salazar has unsuccessfully attended the Stanford Sleep Clinic and a cardiologist, underwent surgery, and trained in Kenya. "I hated running for the majority of the last ten years," he said in 1994. I feared it with a passion. I used to long for a cataclysmic accident in which I would lose one of my legs. I know it's sad, but I haven't had to torture myself anymore if I'd lost a leg.

Salazar's running issues and exercise-induced asthma were largely due to the 1982 marathon, and Prozac was able to relieve his anxiety and physical symptoms. Salazar closed the restaurant he owned at the age of 34 and completed the prestigious 90 kilometers (56 miles) Comrades Marathon in 1994. He quickly returned to running, realizing that he had nothing left to prove as a runner, and became a running coach. Salazar said that the drugs aided him in encouraging him to resume active service in academic running, but that the drug's effect on his results remains unclear.

Post-competitive career

Salazar went into teaching after his time in sport. Mary Decker, a middle-distance runner who reached the Atlanta Olympics at the age of 37, was a runner in 1996. However, a urine test taken in June at the Olympic Trials revealed a testosterone to epitestosterone (T/E) ratio higher than the allowable maximum of six to one. Although Decker and her attorneys argued that the T/E ratio test is inaccurate for women in their late 30s who are taking birth control pills, she was barred from participating in the heats at the Olympics. The IAAF barred Decker from competing in June 1997. The IAAF accepted her to participate after being reinstated by a USATF committee, but the matter was ultimately dismissed. After a retroactive ban stripped her of a silver medal she had earned in the 1500 meters at the 1997 World Indoor Championships, the arbitration panel ruled against her in April 1999.

Salazar was hired by Nike as a mentor for the Nike Oregon Project. Alan Webb, Mo Farah, Galen Rupp, Adam Goucher, Kara Goucher, Dan Browne, Amy Yoder Begley, Sifan Hassan, and Dathan Ritzenhein were among the athletes who have trained under Salazar's tutelage. The Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 in honor of his contribution to Oregon and Oregon Sports. In August 2012, two of Salazar's Olympic-caliber athletes, Mo Farah and Galen Rupp, placed 1st and 2nd respectively in the 10,000 m, becoming the first British double Olympian in long distance;

Salazar completed the ING New York Marathon in 2006, aged 48, and was a time setter for cyclist Lance Armstrong, who was attempting his first marathon. Salazar was primarily responsible for guiding Armstrong for the first ten miles (16 km) of the marathon, while Joan Benoit Samuelson oversaw the next 10 miles (16 km), and Hicham El Guerrouj the final 6.2 miles (10.0 km). Armstrong accomplished his aim of completing the race under three hours with their help, finishing in 2:59:36.

Salazar was rushed to the hospital after suffering a heart attack on Saturday, June 30, 2007. He was described as "groggy" by his family on Sunday and remains in serious condition, and is pictured in serious shape on Sunday. Doctors changed his symptoms from "serious" to "fair" on July 2. On July 8, he was released from the hospital.

Salazar was admitted to the hospital again on June 26, 2008, on the eve of the US Olympic trials, for dehydration and elevated blood pressure. He owes a large part to the intense pressure of working with five Olympic-hopeful athletes. Doctors modified his medications afterward, but do not believe that there was any more heart disease. He returned to his athletes by attending the trials.

Salazar and John Brant coauthored 14 Minutes: A Running Legend's Life and Death in 2012; A Running Legend's Life and Death and Life. Salazar's story follows his family's roots in Cuba, his adolescence in Massachusetts, to present-day coaching, culminating in his 14-minute heart stop in 2007.

Salazar was named in a joint BBC Panorama and ProPublica probe into doping charges in June 2015. Several celebrities and people associated with Salazar testify about suspected testosterone microdosing at the Nike Oregon Project. Salazar declined to be interviewed for the program but denied any wrongdoing by saying in a statement that the "allegations your sources are based on false assumptions and half-truths in an effort to advance their personal interests." Former Nike Oregon Project athlete Kara Goucher, who said she was coerced by Salazar to take thyroidotes not approved by her doctor to lose weight during her pregnancy in 2010, was one of the most high-profile allegations. Salazar made the allegations in public broadcasts.

Salazar and Dr. Jeffrey Stuart Brown, a Nike Oregon Project employee, was barred from doingping violations on October 1, 2019. These included using a WADA-registered method, tampering with doping control products, and trafficking testosterone through a banned testing program. Salazar said in response: "My athletes and I have been exposed to unjust, unethical, and highly damaging treatment from USADA over the course of six years. [...] "I've always made sure the World Anti-Doping Agency's code is strictly followed." The investigation findings were released two days later, exposing a pattern of withholding their own medical information from the athletes, avoiding subpoenas, and other forms of postponement.

Salazar appealed his doping ban to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which upheld his 4-year ban on September 16, 2021. He was found guilty of "possessing testosterone, complicity in Brown's use of a banned tactic, and tampering with the doping control system," according to the CAS. The CAS denied the USADA's offer to extend the ban beyond four years, claiming that "none of the ADRVs (anti-doping rule abuses) directly affected athletic competition, and that "no one of the ADRVs (anti-doping rule abuses) directly affected athletic competition, and that "no evidence was presented before the CAS that there was no evidence pertaining to athletes competing at the highest level" on athletes competing at the elite level."

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