Nike shuts down Oregon Project after anti-doping ban
October 11, 2019
After German Konstanze Klosterhalfen won bronze in Doha Athletics World Championships, her training center is closing following a doping ban on one of the trainers. No athletes at the facility failed doping tests.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/K. Jaafar
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Nike's elite training center, where German long-distance runner Konstanze Klosterhalfen trained to win bronze at IAAF Athletics World Championships in Doha, is set to close following a doping scandal involving a coach.
Two weeks ago head-trainer at the Portland-based project Alberto Salazar received a four-year ban for breaking anti-doping rules between the years 2010-2014 after an investigation by US anti-doping agency USADA.
Nike Chief Executive Mark Parker announced the move in a memo provided to Runner's World magazine.
Konstanze Klosterhalfen maintained she had a different coach to the Cuban-born head coach Alberto Salazar.Image: REUTERS
"This situation, along with ongoing unsubstantiated assertions, is a distraction for many of the athletes and is compromising their ability to focus on their training and competition needs," Parker said in the memo, according to the magazine.
USADA alleged that Salazar trafficked banned, performance-enhancing drugs to its athletes. The Cuban-born former marathon runner has appealed that decision.
No NOP athlete has ever failed a doping test, and the USADA probe pre-dated the entry of the athletes to the group.
Klosterhalfen won third place in Doha for the 5000-meter track in early October. She began training at Oregon Project in 2018 where she maintains that Pete Julian was her coach.
"It's still the best team in the world," she said. "I know for myself and anyone who is there who is around what happens there and what doesn't happen." She also added that at the camp "doping is not a problem."
Her comments came in response to the German Athletics Association, which had an extended supplier contract with Nike, announcing it wanted to change her management.
Nike said it will help athletes find new training arrangements.
NOP runners won three gold medals at the recent world championships in Qatar.
Dutch runner Sifan Hassan won a 1,500m/10,000m double and the 800m title from Donovan Brazier of the US. This is in addition to Klosterhalfen's bronze.
Successful athletes who are also mothers
Shelley Ann Fraser-Pryce, Serena Williams and Marit Björgen are just three athletes who have put their sporting careers on hold in order to have a child. They have all succesfully returned to their sports.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Kappeler
Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce
After Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the 100-meter sprint at the Athletics World Championships in Doha, she celebrated her victory with son Zyon. "It was a long journey," the Jamaican sprinter said of the time it took for her to get back into shape – not only physically but also mentally.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Kappeler
Allyson Felix
Allyson Felix won a record 12th world title and her first since becoming a mother last November, as part of the US team that took the 4x400 meters mixed relay in Doha. After she became pregnant, the six-time Olympic champion got into a dispute with her then-sponsor Nike, which had offered her a 70-percent pay cut as she was forced to take a break from the sport. Felix now has a different sponsor.
Image: picture-alliance/abaca/Emy
Serena Williams
According to her own account, the birth by C-section of daughter Alexis Olympia on September 1, 2017, almost cost the then 36-year-old her life. Since returning to the tennis court following a 13-month break, Williams has reached four Grand Slam finals but hasn’t won any of them.
Image: Reuters/H. McKay
Margaret Court
Margaret Court had a much easier time of it. The 24-time Grand Slam winner, whose record Serena Williams continues to chase, had three children during her playing career, only retiring from the game after she'd become pregnant four a fourth time.
Image: Imago/ZumaPress/Keystone
Marit Björgen
In June 2015 Marit Björgen announced that she was pregnant and would sit out the following World Cup season – with the goal of returning for the 2017 Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti. After the birth of her son Marius, the Norwegian record world champion went on to win four titles at the 2017 Worlds and a year later she followed this up with two Olympic gold medals in Pyeongchang.
Image: picture-alliance/NTB Scanpix/T. Bendiksby
Therese Alshammar
When the Swedish swimmer put her career on hold due to pregnancy in 2013 she had already won numerous World and European Championship titles, plus three Olympic medals – none of which was gold. Alshammar hasn’t been at the top level since returning to the pool, but she did take part in her sixth Olympic Games in Rio in 2016, when she was Sweden's flag-bearer.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Mayama
Darya Domracheva
Only four months after the birth of her daughter, the star biathlete won the silver medal at the World Championships. The Belarusian followed this success up with several World Cup victories, Olympic silver in the pursuit in 2018 and relay gold. In 2018, Domracheva called time on her career. She now coaches China’s national biathlon team long with her husband Ole Einar Björndalen (pictured).
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Schutt
Kristin Armstrong
US cyclist Kristin Armstrong’s son Lucas looks about as happy as his mother after she won Olympic gold in the time trial at the 2012 Games in London. In doing so, she defended the title she had won in Beijing four years earlier. In Rio in 2016, she made it three consecutive Olympic gold medals in the race against the clock.
Image: picture-alliance/Photoshot/Li Ga
Isabell Werth
Isabell Werth gave birth to son Frederick 10 years ago and now he can say that his mother is the most successful dressage rider in the world, having won six Olympic gold medals, four Olympic silver medals, nine World Championship titles and 20 European championship titles. That’s not to mention several national titles.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Vennenbernd
Heike Drechsler
By the time her son Toni was born in 1989, Heike Drechsler had already won gold medals for East Germany in the long jump at both the World and European Championships. She’d also won gold in the 200 meters at the European Championships. After giving birth, she won Olympic gold for Germany in the long jump in Barcelona in 1992 and Sydney eight years later.
Image: picture-alliance/S. Simon
Kim Clijsters
Soon successful tennis mother Kim Clijsters will be back on the WTA tour. The Belgian knows a thing or two about comebacks: In 2007 she retired at the age of 23. In 2009 she gave birth to a daughter before resuming her career and winning three Grand Slam tournaments. She retired for a second time in 2012. Now a mother of three, she has announced another comeback for 2020.
