Nike Oregon Project coach Alberto Salazar and a Houston endocrinologist who had treated athletes belonging to the Portland-based training group, have been banned for four years for doping violations.
The decision was announced Monday by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and begins immediately. It is the result of a four-year investigation.
In a prepared statement, the USADA wrote that two, three-member arbitration panels had determined Salazar and Dr. Jeffrey Brown should be banned for “orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct.”
Salazar was found to have given athletes a substance in excess of its permitted limit, tampered or attempted to tamper with the doping control process of Oregon Project athletes, and trafficked in or attempted to traffic in testosterone, a banned steroid.
The British Broadcasting Corporation first reported the story.
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Salazar is believed to be in Doha, Qatar, where a number of Oregon Project athletes are competing in the World Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
A former University of Oregon track star, Salazar has had a storied coaching career, guiding Olympic gold medalists Mo Farah and Matthew Centrowitz, as well as two-time Olympic medalist Galen Rupp and former Duluth East Olympian Kara Goucher, who had a very bitter split with Salazar in 2011.
-- oregonlive.com
