Distance runner Mary Cain, whose profession fizzled after what she has known as 4 depressing years on the Nike Oregon Mission, has filed a $20 million lawsuit in opposition to her former coach, Alberto Salazar, and their employer, Nike.
Cain accused Salazar of emotionally abusing her when she joined the group in 2012 at age 16, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. The lawsuit portrays Salazar as an indignant management freak who was obsessive about Cain’s weight and publicly humiliated her about it.
That, she mentioned, took a toll on her bodily and psychological well being. Nike was conscious however did not intervene, based on the lawsuit.
Nike didn’t return messages from the newspaper looking for remark. Salazar couldn’t be reached however has beforehand denied abuse allegations, and has mentioned neither Cain nor her dad and mom raised considerations whereas she was a part of this system.
Within the lawsuit filed Monday in Multnomah County Circuit Court docket, Cain alleges Salazar on a number of events required her to get on a scale in entrance of others and would then criticize her. Salazar additionally policed Cain’s meals consumption, she mentioned. At instances, Cain was so hungry, she mentioned, she stole vitality bars from teammates.
Cain went to her dad and mom for help and alleges Salazar finally uninterested in the parental interference. By 2019, Cain says she was depressed, had an consuming dysfunction, generalized nervousness and was slicing herself.
“Nike was letting Alberto weight-shame women, objectify their bodies, and ignore their health and wellbeing as part of its culture,” mentioned Kristen West McCall, a Portland lawyer representing Cain. “This was a systemic and pervasive issue. And they did it for their own gratification and profit.”
In 2019, Cain told The New York Times in a video essay that she was emotionally and bodily abused whereas in this system. Nike on the time known as the allegations deeply troubling and mentioned it might look into them.
On the time, Nike mentioned in an emailed assertion to CBS MoneyWatch. “At Nike we seek to always put the athlete at the center of everything we do, and these allegations are completely inconsistent with our values.”
Salazar helped discovered the Nike Oregon Mission to make American distance runners aggressive with the remainder of the world.
The Nike Oregon Mission was disbanded in 2019 after the U.S. Anti-Doping Company accused Salazar of three violations. The company banned him from the game for 4 years.
Salazar appealed to the Court docket for Arbitration for Sport. Final month, the court docket upheld Salazar’s four-year ban from the game and a few of USADA’s findings. It dominated that Salazar tried an “intentional and orchestrated scheme to mislead” anti-doping investigators when he tampered with proof.
Cain’s 2019 New York Occasions op-ed prompted one other former Oregon Mission runner to share her expertise. Amy Yoder mentioned Cain’s feedback introduced again “painful memories” from eight years in the past.
“After placing 6th in the 10,000m at the 2011 USATF championships, I was kicked out of the Oregon Project,” Yoder tweeted on the time. “I was told I was too fat and had the biggest butt on the starting line.”
Aimee Picchi contributed to this report.
