Runner Kara Goucher reveals darkish underbelly of Nike’s Oregon Mission

On the eve of her 1,500-meter race on the Rietl Grand Prix in Italy, together with her last exercise accomplished, runner Kara Goucher lay facedown on her lodge mattress as her coach, Alberto Salazar, massaged her legs.

As he labored on her calves and hamstrings, Goucher went over her race techniques in her head, visualizing how the next day’s race might play out. 

Immediately, Salazar’s handcrafted it’s method greater up Goucher’s thigh than regular, past her shorts.

“Then, with none phrases, warning, or clarification, his finger went into my vagina. A number of instances,” says Goucher.

“I lay there, fully surprised.”

In “The Longest Race: Contained in the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike’s Elite Operating Staff,” out now and co-written with Mary Pilon, Goucher reveals the darkish underbelly of Nike’s secretive Oregon Mission working crew — and the abusive and coercive practices employed by the venture’s head coach, Alberto Salazar.

Born in Queens in 1978, Goucher is the daughter of Mirko Grgas, a Croatian immigrant and proficient soccer participant who gained a scholarship to play at Ottawa College, changing into a three-time All-American within the course of.

Although Grgas was killed by a drunk driver on the Harlem River Drive when his daughter was simply 3 years previous, Goucher inherited her father’s sporting prowess. 

After shifting to Duluth, Minnesota, she ran her first one-mile race on the age of 6 and gained her high-school cross-country championships.

Later, as a pupil on the College of Colorado, she grew to become NCAA champion within the 3000m, 5000m, and Cross Nation.

Her expertise didn’t go unnoticed.

After her 2001 commencement, Goucher was invited to hitch Nike’s elite Oregon Mission, in Portland, Oregon, alongside together with her husband and fellow runner, Adam Goucher. 

It was the prospect of a lifetime.

The Nike campus at Beaverton boasted the type of state-of-the-art coaching amenities that might take an athlete to the very high.

“All the pieces we’d have to win was at our fingertips — gear, massages, medical care, teaching — and if it wasn’t, we might ask for it,” Goucher writes.

“It felt like we’d gained the lottery.”

Becoming a member of the Oregon Mission was meant to be her passport to sports activities superstardom however, below the tutelage of head coach Salazar, it became something however.

A two-time Olympian and three-time New York marathon winner, Salazar had a status for utilizing unorthodox coaching strategies that pushed the boundaries of what was authorized on the planet of athletics.

However, initially, at the very least, it appeared to pay dividends for Goucher.

She gained a silver medal within the 10,000 meters on the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan; took third place finishes at each the New York and Boston Marathons and made the US crew for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Issues have been going nicely off the monitor as nicely. When Goucher grew to become pregnant in 2010, Nike organized a publicity photoshoot together with her. 

“For a mainstream firm, particularly a sports activities model, to place a pregnant athlete entrance and middle was revolutionary,” she writes. “I felt like we have been tapping right into a neighborhood that the sports activities world had lengthy uncared for.”

It didn’t fairly pan out that method.

“When the picture was revealed, I used to be shocked to see my pregnant stomach had been photoshopped out and non-pregnant abs had been substituted in, whereas my breasts, which had grown considerably through the being pregnant, have been left as they have been,” she continues. 

“The mixture leaves an impression of a pretend physique — as a result of it’s one.”

Issues went downhill from there, she says

When her quarterly Nike paycheck of $81,250 didn’t hit her account in July that 12 months, she found her wage had been suspended due to “my ‘absence’ from the competitors, and my ‘medical situation.’ That means, being pregnant,” Goucher writes.

However the relationship with Nike was the least of her issues.

On the Oregon Mission, Salazar’s uncommon strategies have been below suspicion, particularly as athletes like Mo Farah have been all of a sudden performing higher than ever. 

Throughout the 2011 Prefontaine Basic 10,000 meters race at Oregon Observe Membership, for instance, Goucher watched in disbelief because the British runner surged to victory, breaking the British and European data.

Stepping away from the bleachers, she known as her husband and stated she couldn’t consider the outcomes that Farah was attaining.

“Do you suppose they’re dishonest?” he requested.

Goucher writes: “With out hesitation, I answered: ‘Sure.’”

Immediately, all the doubts that Goucher had about Salazar appeared to make sense — the mysterious vials she had seen in crew fridges, a shadowy man named “Dr. Brown” exhibiting up at races, unmarked prescription bottles, and even secretive conferences between Salazar and Farah that Goucher and different teammates have been by no means invited to.

“Lastly, in that second, I felt my belief in him shatter,” she writes of Salazar.

(Farah has all the time denied any wrongdoing and has by no means been sanctioned for any infringement of doping guidelines throughout his time with Salazar, though he has admitted to taking performance-enhancing dietary supplements at one other time.)

Goucher additionally remembers how, again in 2006, Salazar had tried to extend her husband’s testosterone ranges, giving him dietary supplements like “Alpha Male” and “TestoBoost,” all of which he stated have been permitted by the US Anti-Doping Company (USADA) — regardless that they weren’t.

Salazar additionally, Goucher writes, informed Adam in an e mail that “a latest research sponsored by Victoria’s Secret proves that purchasing their garments will increase their husband’s testosterone ranges by 50%.”

All of the whereas, Salazar’s predatory conduct towards Goucher continued, she claims.

On a flight to Portugal for the Lisbon Half-Marathon, the coach allegedly drunkenly quizzed Goucher about her intercourse life and informed her, in-depth, about his along with his spouse

“Finally, he fell asleep,” Goucher writes. “After we landed in Lisbon, he bought up and walked off the aircraft as if nothing had occurred.”

On the identical journey, there was one other alleged sexual assault throughout a therapeutic massage.

“I had informed myself after the Rieti incident that it needed to have been some type of accident,” writes Goucher.  “Right here it was, taking place once more. And right here I used to be, once more, making an attempt desperately to consider it was one other mistake. “

In 2011, in the meantime, Goucher took half within the 10,000 meters within the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, regardless of having a stress fracture in her higher leg.

After “the being pregnant factor,” she had been threatened with a 25% discount in her Nike wage if she missed the competitors.

Being away from her household and competing with an damage was arduous sufficient — she completed a distant 13^th — however being alone with Salazar, she writes, was worse.

On the flight throughout the Pacific, Goucher alleges Salazar took to the crimson wine once more and talked explicitly about intercourse — telling her about having intercourse in a scorching tub with one other feminine runner.

Then, issues escalated. Goucher writes that Salazar, the “wine crusted within the nook of his mouth,” made a transfer on her.

“’We’ve each wished this,’ Alberto stated, propositioning me instantly for the primary time. He stated that we should always kiss and that ‘nobody would discover out,’” Goucher remembers. 

“Earlier than I might reply, he moved his head towards me. I immediately recoiled. ‘You’re drunk,’ I informed him. I wanted to get away and I didn’t wish to wait round to see what he would say.”

Goucher says she locked herself within the rest room and waited for her coach to go to sleep.

“I had left my youngster and husband to be on this aircraft, to compete whereas injured, to attempt to keep in Nike’s good graces. 

“How did I get right here? I requested myself. And the way do I get out?”

When she informed her husband, they each broke down in tears.

“Adam was upset, although not at me,” she writes. “He stated that he felt like he had failed as a husband as a result of he didn’t shield me. “

Goucher left the Oregon Mission in 2011, returning to her previous school coach, Mark Wetmore, and giving discover on her Nike contract.

Her final official race as a Nike athlete was the Turkey Trot Thanksgiving run in West Linn, Portland.

“Twelve and a half years as a Nike runner, greater than a 3rd of my lifetime, and it was over as soon as and for all,” she writes.  “I opened up my closet and pulled out each single piece of clothes with a swoosh on it. 

“I had the considered placing the entire pile within the trash and even having some type of bonfire within the yard. However I couldn’t fathom losing that a lot attire. I loaded all of it into my automotive and donated it.“

Free from the Oregon Mission, Kara, and Adam Goucher would each be instrumental in bringing Salazar to justice — giving proof on his misdeeds to each USADA and the US Heart for SafeSport.

In 2019, Salazar was suspended for 4 years from monitor and discipline by USADA for offenses together with trafficking testosterone.

Nike closed the Oregon Mission that 12 months.

In July 2021, in the meantime, the US Heart for SafeSport banned Salazar for all times from monitor and discipline for sexual and emotional misconduct, as different victims got here ahead.

In October 2021, former Oregon Mission runner Mary Cain filed a $20 million lawsuit in opposition to Salazar and Nike for abuse suffered throughout her time there, citing the coach’s obsession together with her weight, the general public humiliations he put her by, and the ensuing despair and self-harming conduct she developed. 

“She additionally alleged that Nike was conscious however did not intervene,” writes Goucher.

Salazar has denied all doping and abuse claims.

As we speak, Goucher, 44, lives with Adam and their son, Colt, in Boulder, Colorado, and is the co-host of the “Clear Sport Collective” podcast, an anti-doping initiative.  

“Alberto is out of the game, however I’m nonetheless right here, working. By coaching, racing, placing one foot in entrance of the opposite, I’ve came upon how sturdy an individual I actually am,” Goucher writes.

“[Running] made me who I’m. It’s made me glad. I’m nonetheless in love with it. I all the time shall be.”