Nike CEO was reportedly briefed on doping experiments by a now-suspended running coach

(Image credit: Luca Bruno/AP)

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency slapped famed, Nike-backed track coach and former marathon champion Alberto Salazar with a four-year ban for allegedly trafficking testosterone and conducting experiments to manipulate the use of performance-enhancing drugs for athletes. And it turns out Nike's CEO Mark Parker knew about at least some of the experiments, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Salazar has claimed his testosterone experiments were designed to prevent competitors from trying to sabotage his athletes and says that he was shocked by the suspension. But USADA wasn't buying it, arguing that the tests just as easily "can be used to further the nefarious purpose of evading doping control." In other words, the agency believes Salazar was trying to figure out the highest amount of topical testosterone cream that would fail to trigger a positive doping test.

USADA highlighted a 2009 email exchange between Parker and Nike-sponsored doctor, Jeffrey Brown — who worked alongside Salazar — in which Brown provides Parker with details about their results. Parker replied that "it will be interesting to determine the minimal amount of topical male hormone required to create a positive test." The agency further alleges that at least one of the experiments was conducted in a laboratory at Nike's headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, so it appears that all this was going down right beneath the swoosh itself.

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Nike is a major force in global athletics, and while it's unclear if the company will, or even can, suffer any consequences if the allegations are true, it is clear that this story is not small potatoes. The Nike Oregon Project has produced six Olympic medals between distance running stars, Mo Farah of the U.K., and American Galen Rupp. Read more at The Wall Street Journal. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.