A US organization has rejected an appeal by sports coach Alberto Salazar against a life suspension imposed on him for inappropriate sexual acts.
Salazar, 63, of Cuban descent, was arrested in July but appealed. His information in the database of the organization’s US Center for Safe Sport was updated this week to become “permanently ineligible.”
It may indicate that the appeal has been dismissed, which would be the latest – and perhaps definitive – blow in the once famous coach’s career.
SafeSport does not disclose details of its investigations.
In 2019, a group of athletes, including Mary Kane, Kara Goucher, and Amy Yoder Begley, revealed that they experienced psychological and physical abuse while working with Salazar as part of the Nike Oregon Project.
In January 2020, SafeSport temporarily discontinued Salazar. The penalty became permanent in July 2021.
Cain sued Salazar and Nike. Among the accusations, she noted, the coach forced her to stand on the scale in front of other people and criticized her if her weight was not at a certain level.
The coach denied any wrongdoing.
Earlier this year, in another case, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld a four-year suspension for a series of doping offenses that occurred when Salazar was coaching Olympic athletes with Project Nike.
Shortly after this decision, Nike declared the track team extinct.
Salazar won the Boston and New York Marathons in the early 1980s and coached several Olympic medalists, including Mo Farah and Galen Robb. None of the athletes who worked with Salazar have been charged with doping offenses.
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