Nike and its chief executive, Mike Parker, have become involved in a highly publicized case of athletic doping. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has decreed four-year “sanctions” on Alberto Salazar, head coach of the Nike Oregon Project, and Jeffrey Brown, the project's endocrinologist. Salazar has been barred from participating in track and field competitions for four years.
A few years ago, Salazar tested a testosterone treatment to determine the threshold of detectability by the anti-doping authorities. Parker was aware of the tests, as he received e-mails about them between 2009 and 2011. As the USADA describes things, “Salazar and Brown trafficked testosterone, a banned performance-enhancing substance, administered a prohibited IV infusion, and engaged in tampering to attempt to prevent relevant information about their conduct from being learned by USADA.”
Nike, speaking to the New York Times, said that Salazar performed the tests on his two adult sons – neither of them a professional athlete – out of concern that a saboteur could rub such a substance onto a Nike-sponsored runner to produce a positive test result. Nike has also claimed that Salazar was unaware that such testing was against the rules.
A statement from Salazar on the Oregon Project's website reads, “I am shocked by the outcome today. Throughout this six-year investigation my athletes and I have endured unjust, unethical and highly damaging treatment from USADA.” Salazar is particularly critical of Travis T. Tygart, USADA's chief executive, who said that Salazar and Brown had “demonstrated that winning was more important than the health and wellbeing of the athletes they were sworn to protect.” “This is completely false,” Salazar's statement continues, “and contrary to the findings of the arbitrators, who even wrote about the care I took in complying with the World Anti-Doping code.”
The “periods of ineligibility” for both Salazar and Brown began on Sept. 30. Although it is a non-profit, non-governmental body, the USADA has been recognized by the U.S. Congress as “the official anti-doping agency for Olympic, Pan American, and Paralympic sport” in the U.S.
The bad publicity about Nike comes after various reports on its dubious stance on issues of diversity, which the Swoosh has been apparently keen to improve upon, but the stock exchange has taken little notice of them in view of the brand's brilliant market performance.
