LONDON − Athletics coach, Alberto Salazar, will serve the entirety of his four-year ban for doping offences after losing an appeal against suspension at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), British media reports said yesterday.
The 63-year-old former head of the now-shuttered Nike Oregon Project was suspended in 2019 for a catalogue of drugs violations.
The BBC and The Times both reported yesterday that CAS had upheld Alberto’s suspension following an appeal.
CAS was not immediately available to comment on the reports.
Alberto, best known for coaching Britain's four-time Olympic champion, Mo Farah, was suspended two years ago during the World Championships in Doha.
It followed an investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which found that Alberto was discovered to have trafficked or attempted to traffic the banned performance-enhancing substance, testosterone, and given athletes a substance in excess of its permitted limit as well as tampered with the doping control process of athletes.
USADA said its investigation had uncovered a treasure trove of evidence including "eyewitness proof, testimonies, contemporaneous emails, and patient records”.
Alberto, who was also coaching Ethiopian-born Dutch distance running star, Sifan Hassan, at the time of his suspension, had steadfastly denied wrongdoing.
Alberto 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 Alberto.
Alberto later admitted to making remarks that were "callous or insensitive" but denied that any athlete under his supervision had suffered abuse or gender discrimination.
Alberto also tampered or attempted to tamper with the Oregon Project athletes' doping control process, USADA said after concluding its four-year investigation.
Alberto won three consecutive New York City marathons from 1980 before coaching a number of Olympians, including Mo, who won gold medals in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Games.
Mo has never failed a drugs test and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Alberto stopped coaching Mo in 2017, when the runner decided to move back to England. Mo said at the time that the doping investigation was not the reason they parted ways. – Agencies, September 16, 2021
