Alberto Salazar. (Photo by Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)
Athletics coach Alberto Salazar’s four-year suspension for a series
of doping violations was Thursday upheld by the Court of Arbitration for
Sport.
The 63-year-old former head of the now-shuttered Nike
Oregon Project, best known for coaching Britain’s four-time Olympic
champion Mo Farah, was suspended in 2019.
A four-year ban on
physician and endocrinologist Jeffrey Brown, who worked alongside
Salazar, was also upheld by the Lausanne-based body.
In a
statement, CAS said Salazar and Brown had “committed a number of
anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) and has confirmed the four-year bans
imposed on them”.
CAS listed a number of violations committed by
Salazar – possession of testosterone, complicity in Brown’s
administration of a prohibited method, and tampering with the doping
control process.
Salazar was suspended two years ago during the
world championships in Doha following an investigation by the US
Anti-Doping Agency.
USADA said its probe had uncovered a treasure
trove of evidence including “eye-witness proof, testimonies,
contemporaneous emails, and patient records”.
Salazar, who was
coaching Ethiopian-born Dutch distance-running star Sifan Hassan at the
time of his suspension, has steadfastly denied wrongdoing.
Farah,
who parted ways with Salazar in 2017, has never failed a drugs test and
there is no suggestion that the British runner was involved in any of
the improprieties.
Hassan, who won 5 000m and 10 000m gold at the Tokyo Olympics, has also never tested positive for drugs.
Salazar
is already serving a separate lifetime ban from coaching after an
investigation by the US Centre for SafeSport found evidence of sexual
and emotional misconduct.
That ban, confirmed in July, came after a
group of female runners from the defunct Oregon Project said they had
been subjected to emotional and verbal abuse by Salazar.
Salazar
later admitted making remarks that were “callous or insensitive” but
denied that any athlete under his supervision had suffered abuse or
gender discrimination.