Former Olympic coach Alberto Salazar banned for life due to sexual misconduct

Running coach Alberto Salazar got his appeal for a lifetime ban due to sexual misconduct rejected by the US center for SafeSport.

Alberto Salazar. (Source: Twitter)

Track coach Alberto Salazar's appeal of his lifetime ban for sexual misconduct was rejected by the US Center for SafeSport in the latest, and likely final defeat of his once-storied career. The 63-year-old Salazar was handed the lifetime ban in July but appealed the case. His entry in the SafeSport database was updated this week to "permanent ineligibility," signalling the appeal had been rejected. The SafeSport center does not reveal details of its investigations.

In 2019, a handful of runners, including Mary Cain, Kara Goucher and Amy Yoder Begley, revealed that they had been emotionally and physically abused while working with Salazar as part of the Nike Oregon Project team.

Alberto Salazar's ban on the U.S. Center for SafeSport’s disciplinary database says "permanent ineligibility."

No longer has the emotional misconduct violation listed or the "subject to appeal" note as it did in July.https://t.co/hzjaNR1FtT https://t.co/LX4Q6qqJhs pic.twitter.com/IO6f7kROOt — Chris Chavez (@ChrisChavez) December 22, 2021

In January 2020, SafeSport temporarily banned Salazar, and that was made permanent in July 2021. Cain has sued Salazar and Nike. Among the allegations is that he made her step on a scale in front of other people and would criticize her if her weight wasn't at a certain level. The coach has denied wrongdoing.

Earlier this year in a separate case, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a four-year ban for a series of doping-related violations that occurred while Salazar was training Olympians with the Nike project. Shortly after that decision, Nike shut down the running team.

Salazar won the Boston and New York Marathons in the early 1980s and went on to coach a number of Olympic medalists, including Mo Farah and Galen Rupp. None of Salazar's former runners have been charged with doping violations.