Nike Oregon Project

Nike Oregon Project ; (NOP)
founding	2001 in Beaverton , Oregon
Seat	Beaverton
main emphasis	Elite running group
Website	nikeoregonproject.com

The Nike Oregon Project (NOP) (also Nike's Oregon Project ) was an elite running training group sponsored by the sporting goods manufacturer Nike and founded in 2001 in Beaverton , Oregon . In October 2019, Nike ended the project after doping investigations and a four-year suspension against head coach Alberto Salazar .

history

The Nike Oregon Project was started by then Nike Vice President Thomas E. Clarke after he had been dissatisfied with the performance of American athletes in endurance running since the early 1980s . During that time, Alberto Salazar (later head coach of the Oregon Project) had won three New York City marathons in a row in 1980, 1981 and 1982 .

So it was that Clarke won Salazar over to the project. At the beginning, Salazar selected well-known runners of the time who he believed had not yet reached their full potential. Eventually, however, he concluded that athletes' exercise habits were firmly entrenched and difficult to overcome. This led Salazar to target younger athletes with the project.

Facility

The runners lived in the Portland , Oregon area and trained on Nike's main campus, just outside the Portland suburb in Beaverton. Some of the group's runners lived in a house specially designed for them that had oxygen filters built in to simulate life at high altitudes. Studies have shown that living at altitude makes people develop more red blood cells, which increases their physical performance potential. In addition to simulated altitude training and modern performance diagnostics, underwater and anti-gravity treadmills as well as a cryosauna were available to the athletes .

criticism

In 2006, the project was further reviewed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which claimed its methods could be equated with blood doping .

On May 19, 2017, The New York Times wrote an article about a USADA report claiming that Salazar worked with athletes to increase their L-carnitine levels. The allegation was that the intravenous method might have violated USADA anti-doping regulations if the amount infused was too high.

On October 1, 2019, during the World Athletics Championships , the USADA banned Alberto Salazar from exercising his office as a coach for four years (so-called "doping ban for coaches") because he allegedly traded testosterone, infused a prohibited amount of L-carnitine and tried to Manipulate doping controls. Salazar denies the allegations and planned to appeal against the ban.

On October 10, 2019, Nike CEO Mark Parker announced the end of the Oregon Project.

In November, 23-year-old athlete Mary Cain made grave allegations against the team and Nike in an article written for the New York Times .