FEMALE ABUSE ON NIKE'S WATCH........... ANYONE GONNA BOYCOTT????

63,610
50,738
Joined
May 23, 2005
Nike To Investigate Runner Mary Cain's Claims Of Abuse At Its Oregon Project


mary-cain-nike-oregon_wide-15245b7086e821584be1a745971487d432bd24a5-s1500-c85.jpg


Mary Cain says she endured constant pressure to lose weight and was publicly shamed during her time at the Nike Oregon Project. She's seen here in the 1500-meter race at the 2014 USA Track and Field Championships. Cain won silver in that race; she had turned 18 just a month earlier.
Christopher Morris /Corbis via Getty Images
Nike says it's investigating claims of physical and mental abuse in its now-defunct Oregon Project in response to former running phenom Mary Cain's harrowing account of her time under disgraced coach Alberto Salazar.
Cain says she paid a steep price during her time with the elite distance-running program, from self-harm and suicidal thoughts to broken bones related to her declining health.
She is speaking out less than a month after Nike shut down the Oregon Project in the wake of a four-year doping ban against Salazar, which he has said he plans to appeal. A string of elite athletes — Cain's former Oregon Project teammates — say they back her claims.
"I joined Nike because I wanted to be the best female athlete ever," Cain says in an opinion video produced by The New York Times. "Instead, I was emotionally and physically abused by a system designed by Alberto and endorsed by Nike."
Cain, 23, shot to fame in 2012 as a blazingly fast New York teenager who shattered national records. She began training with Salazar full time after finishing high school, skipping the NCAA track circuit altogether. At the time, she was seen as a prodigy, a sure bet to win Olympic gold and set world records. In 2013, she won the International Athletic Foundation's Rising Star Award.
Sign Up For The NPR Daily Newsletter
Catch up on the latest headlines and unique NPR stories, sent every weekday.
E-mail address


By subscribing, you agree to NPR's terms of use and privacy policy.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
But Cain says that Salazar and other staff members constantly pressured her to lose weight — and that her health suffered dramatically as a result.
"When I first arrived, an all-male Nike staff became convinced that in order for me to get better, I had to become thinner and thinner and thinner," Cain says in the Times video.
Cain says that mantra — and public shaming about her weight — led to a spiral of health problems known as relative energy deficiency in sport, or RED-S syndrome. Also called the female athlete triad, the condition is triggered when athletes take in too few calories to support their training. Next, they stop having menstrual periods — and lose vital bone density as a result.
"I broke five different bones" because of RED-S, Cain says.
Cain says that after a disappointing finish in a race in 2015, Salazar yelled at her in front of a large crowd, saying he could tell she had gained 5 pounds.
"It was also that night that I told Alberto and our sports psych that I was cutting myself and they pretty much told me that they just wanted to go to bed," Cain said. Soon afterward, she says she decided to leave Salazar's program and return home to Bronxville, N.Y.
Salazar denies Cain's accusations against him. NPR's attempts to contact Salazar for comment so far have been unsuccessful. But The Oregonian quotes a statement from the famous coach in which he says, "To be clear, I never encouraged her, or worse yet, shamed her, to maintain an unhealthy weight."
In that message, Salazar also says that Cain "struggled to find and maintain her ideal performance and training weight." But he says he discussed the issue with Cain's father, who is a doctor, and referred her to a female doctor, as well.
In response to Cain's allegations, Nike says, "We take the allegations extremely seriously and will launch an immediate investigation to hear from former Oregon Project athletes."
The company calls Cain's claims "deeply troubling," but it says that neither she nor her parents had previously raised the allegations.
"Mary was seeking to rejoin the Oregon Project and Alberto's team as recently as April of this year and had not raised these concerns as part of that process," a Nike spokesperson said in an email to NPR.
On Friday morning, Cain addressed her recent attempt to rejoin the team, saying via Twitter, "As recently as this summer, I still thought: 'maybe if I rejoin the team, it'll go back to how it was.' But we all come to face our demons in some way. For me, that was seeing my old team this last spring."

Mary Cain@runmarycain

· Nov 8, 2019

Replying to @runmarycain
We quickly fell out of touch this summer, and that made the rose color glasses finally fall off. He didn’t care about me as a person; only as the product, the performer, the athlete. Then, after the USADA report dropped, I felt this quick and sudden sense of release.

Mary Cain@runmarycain


No more wanting them to like me. No more needing their approval. I could finally look at the facts, read others stories, and face: THIS SYSTEM WAS NOT OK. I stand before you today because I am strong enough, wise enough, and brave enough. Please stand with me.
https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1192787556766797825
https://twitter.com/runmarycain/status/1192787556766797825


Over the summer, Cain says, she became convinced that Salazar only cared about her as "the product, the performer, the athlete," not as a person. She adds that she decided to go public with her story after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency punished Salazar earlier this year. Now Cain is calling for Nike to change its ways — and to ensure the culture that thrived under Salazar is eradicated.
"In track and field, Nike is all-powerful," Cain says in the Times video. "They control the top coaches, athletes, races, even the governing body. You can't just fire a coach and eliminate a program and pretend the problem is solved."
She adds, "My worry is that Nike is merely going to rebrand the old program and put Alberto's old assistant coaches in charge."
The list of runners who have stepped forward to support Cain includes Canadian distance runner Cameron Levins, a former Olympian and NCAA champion who trained in the Oregon Project.
"I knew that our coaching staff was obsessed with your weight loss, emphasizing it as if it were the single thing standing in the way of great performances," Levins said in a tweet directed at Cain.
"I knew because they spoke of it openly among other athletes," he added.
Another athlete, former NCAA champion Amy Yoder Begley, said she was kicked out of the Oregon Project after she placed sixth in a 10,000-meter race in 2011.
https://twitter.com/yoderbegley/status/1192601695651536896


"I was told I was too fat and 'had the biggest butt on the starting line,' " Begley said via Twitter. "This brings those painful memories back."
Cain says her parents were "horrified" when she told them about her life in the Nike Oregon Project. "They bought me the first plane ride home," she says. "They were like, 'Get on that flight, get the hell out of there.' "
On Friday, Cain thanked Levins for his support and said, "For so long, I thought I was the problem. To me, the silence of others meant that pushing my body past its healthy limits was the only way. But I know we were all scared, and fear keeps us silent."
As for what changes Cain would like to see, she tells the Times that her sport needs more women in power.
"Part of me wonders if I had worked with more female psychologists, nutritionists and even coaches, where I'd be today," Cain says. "I got caught in a system designed by and for men which destroys the bodies of young girls. Rather than force young girls to fend for themselves, we have to protect them."
After being off the track-and-field radar for several years, Cain ran a 4-mile race on Mother's Day in Central Park. In an interview earlier this year, she talked about what she would write in a letter to her younger self.
Here's part of what Cain told Citius Mag:
"I think my letter would say, 'Go have that milkshake. Go see that movie. Go out with that friend. Love running and commit to running but the best way to do that is to love yourself and commit to yourself. Make sure you're doing those other things as well so that once you go out for a run, you're so happy to be there.' "
 
Nike to investigate allegations of 'emotional and physical abuse' leveled against Alberto Salazar


Former track star claims emotional, physical abuse by Nike and coach
Mary Cain claims former coach Alberto Salazar caused her physical and emotional abuse; David Bruno and Jared Max weigh in.
Nike has announced an internal investigation into allegations of “emotional and physical abuse” leveled against disgraced world-class track and field coach Alberto Salazar this week in an op-ed by former Olympic hopeful Mary Cain.
Cain, 23, opened up about the abuse she experienced after joining the Nike-backed running program “The Oregon Project” in 2013 in a video Op-Ed published in the New York Times.

NIKE ENDS CONTROVERSIAL OREGON PROJECT
“I joined Nike because I wanted to be the best female athlete ever. Instead I was emotionally and physically abused by a system design by Alberto and endorsed by Nike.”
Cain described how her “dream come true” quickly turned into a nightmare when, at just 16-years-old, she was body-shamed and pressured to be “thinner and thinner and thinner.”
“When I first arrived an all-male Nike staff became convinced that in order for me to get better, I had to become thinner and thinner and thinner.”
Mary Cain of the U.S. runs during the 3000m final during day three of the IAAF World Junior Championships at Hayward Field on July 24, 2014 in Eugene, Oregon.

Mary Cain of the U.S. runs during the 3000m final during day three of the IAAF World Junior Championships at Hayward Field on July 24, 2014 in Eugene, Oregon. (Getty)
Cain said that she was given an “arbitrary” goal of 114 pounds because she was told by Salazar’s team that the lighter she was, the faster she would run. But she alleged that, despite being a world-renowned program, no one that made these decisions was a “certified sports psychologist” or nutritionist they were just “a bunch of people who were Alberto’s friends.”
She claims that while training under Salazar, she was directed to take birth control and diuretics to lose even more weight.

The damage to her body was becoming so severe, she began to experience physical and mental changes.
“When young women are forced to push themselves beyond what they’re capable at their given age they’re at risk for developing RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports). Suddenly you realize you’ve lost your period for a couple of months and then a couple months becomes a couple years and in my case it was a total of three.”
Cain told the Times that she was so weak she broke five bones and started to develop suicidal thoughts.
Former distance runner Alberto Salazar yells out lap times to distance runner Mo Farah, from Britain, during the 10,000-meter race in the Prefontaine Classic track and field meet in Eugene, Ore., Friday, May 29, 2015.

Former distance runner Alberto Salazar yells out lap times to distance runner Mo Farah, from Britain, during the 10,000-meter race in the Prefontaine Classic track and field meet in Eugene, Ore., Friday, May 29, 2015. (AP)
“I felt so scared and I felt so alone and I felt so trapped and I started to have suicidal thoughts. I started to cut myself.”
She continued: “Some people saw me cutting myself … Nobody really did anything or said anything.”


Cain claimed that in May 2015 she hit the point of no return. After a poor performance at a race she publicly shamed by Salazar and accused of gaining weight. Later that day, she told her team that she had been cutting herself and was allegedly told in response that “they just wanted to go to bed.”
She said that at that moment she realized that the “system is sick.”
“I wasn't even trying to make the Olympics anymore, I was just trying to survive.”
Salazar was recently banned for four years after several doping incidents but just last month the program itself was ended after it emerged that Salazar was pushing his athletes too hard. This included allegations similar to Cain’s in that he allegedly asked runners to take prescription drugs to increase their performance.
But Cain argues that Nike’s decision to shutdown the Oregon Project is just a bandaid.
“They’re not acknowledging that there is a systemic crisis in women's sports and at Nike in which young girls bodies are being ruined by an emotionally and physically abusive system,” she told the Times.

Nike issued a statement calling the allegations “deeply troubling” but went on to say that Cain never raised the issue with them and tried to “rejoin” the team in April.
“These are deeply troubling allegations which have not been raised by Mary or her parents before. Mary was seeking to rejoin the Oregon Project and Alberto’s team as recently as April of this year and had not raised these concerns as part of that process. We take the allegations extremely seriously and will launch an immediate investigation to hear from former Oregon Project athletes.”
Cain responded to this statement and told the Times that her attempting to rejoin Salazar’s team shows the extent of the emotional abuse she underwent.

“I was the victim of an abusive system, an abusive man. I was constantly tormented by the conflict of wanting to be free from him and wanting to go back to the way things used to be, when I was his favorite.”
She continued: “When we let people emotionally break us, we crave their approval more than anything.”
Salazar denied Cain’s allegations, according to the Times.
 
I love Nike apparel.

Sounds like Salazar is a scumbag but why would we boycot Nike.
:lol: since u love nike apparel
nike gets a pass???

folks at nike knew
was swept under the rug
also their pregnancy contracts
on how they cut women who got pregnant
bunch of other stuff from other articles
folks think this may be the reason nike ceo mark parker is stepping down
folks think a HUGE wave is coming next
 
:lol: since u love nike apparel
nike gets a pass???

folks at nike knew
was swept under the rug
also their pregnancy contracts
on how they cut women who got pregnant
bunch of other stuff from other articles
folks think this may be the reason nike ceo mark parker is stepping down
folks think a HUGE wave is coming next

Aint no such thing as a pass, the whole concept is some selective virtue stuff. Nike makes products that are great for me and my lifestyle so they get my business.

As I recall they pivoted on their maternity practices. The old practice was wrong. I don't give them a whole lot of credit for fixing it but it is a separate issue.

I read the article, seems to me this is about Salazar and performance coaching malpractice.
 
I’m boycotting boycotting..
im not advocating
or anything for boycotting
just curious though
what would nike have to do
to make u want to boycott
does it have to be doing something against us black folks
or what if they were racist to another minority group
what would nike have to do to make u not want to spend ur money with them
 
reading the article when it actually came out???
or u mean from this thread???
from this thread.

seriously though, i’m not buying any shoes nowadays cause my money is going to tuition and everything else since my wife quit work to take care of the baby. not sure if/when i’ll buy more nikes.
 
im not advocating
or anything for boycotting
just curious though
what would nike have to do
to make u want to boycott
does it have to be doing something against us black folks
or what if they were racist to another minority group

what would nike have to do to make u not want to spend ur money with them


Yea anything actively against my people is a no-go. Racism against any group is a no-go.

Taking consumer action against sexism is a little harder to reconcile for me because it's so inherent in our society.
 
I know the Nike CEO stepped down, especially after the harassment stuff a year ago or so was found to be widespread what a ****ty company.
 
Yea anything actively against my people is a no-go. Racism against any group is a no-go.

Taking consumer action against sexism is a little harder to reconcile for me because it's so inherent in our society.
Racism is inherent as well
I agree with u though
But shouldn’t we treat them the same
I mean what that was ur daughter u know
Like that saying an injustice anywhere
Is a threat to injustice everywhere
 
Racism is inherent as well
I agree with u though
But shouldn’t we treat them the same
I mean what that was ur daughter u know
Like that saying an injustice anywhere
Is a threat to injustice everywhere

I mean on an altruistic level sure, but for me, on a practical level nah.

If we ended systemic sexism at the push of a button, black women would still getting ****ed over by society. White women still so far ahead of every other group of women. Racism is the uglier beast. Any advances in sexism are only truly experienced as a net win by white women (who need the aid least) while racism is in play.

As for what if that was my daughter, again for me the Oregon project is an issue of malpractice. There are abusive and manipulative coaches across all levels and genders in sports. It's not an injustice to women (the pregnancy/maternity rules that Nike reversed were an injustice to women).
 
Whats Nike's good news to bad news ratio? For every good thing to bad thing.
 
I'm all for the right thing and all don't get me wrong...

But them Black/Red XI's for Christmas is hitting brah.
 
I’m boycotting boycotting.. #anticancelculture

Real talk though, cancel culture is toxic. Someone opened my eyes up to that about a year ago.

Also, if you are going to boycott one company because you don’t agree with some of the peoples views who are at the top, shouldn’t you boycott every company/business that has a ceo etc with actions and views that go against humanity ?
 
Also, if you are going to boycott one company because you don’t agree with some of the peoples views who are at the top, shouldn’t you boycott every company/business that has a ceo etc with actions and views that go against humanity ?
who said a person cant chose to do that as well???
each individual person
has their own "code"
they live or go by
just cause u or the next person doesnt decide to do that
doesnt mean others dont


also cancel culture is trash
but that still doesnt mean
if someone or something is doing something
u dont agree with
that u as an individual cant decide to not support
 
I'm all for the right thing and all don't get me wrong...

But them Black/Red XI's for Christmas is hitting brah.
agree completely
but what would make u change ur mind
if that was ur relative
would u still buy them 11's
or ur friend
is that far enough away from being associated with u
that it would still be ok to buy
u get what i mean.
are we all sellouts
regardless of the cause
if the price or reward is right
 
agree completely
but what would make u change ur mind
if that was ur relative
would u still buy them 11's
or ur friend
is that far enough away from being associated with u
that it would still be ok to buy
u get what i mean.
are we all sellouts
regardless of the cause
if the price or reward is right

Understood that nasty guy is a Nike employee, but is his behavior within Nike's standard or is he misbehaving on his own? We over simplify who we are boycotting and say let's boycott this corporation for what this one manager at this one location did and logically that doesn't make sense. Like the Starbucks employee that called the cops on those black men, was that employee acting according to Starbucks rules or were they acting on their own? In short: Why boycott Nike for the misbehavior of an employee, if that behavior is not being championed by the company itself or just not being handled within the timeline that you think is appropriate?
If you want to be immersive with the examples, what if you were the coach and somebody exaggerated the treatment and conversations you had with them, would you want your company to fire you instantly or would you like for them to take the time to review and research what's real/provable?

Also, people spend to much time trying to justify why EVERYBODY ELSE should be as upset/disappointed/pissed off/disgusted with a situation and that EVERYBODY should boycott with them. If you think Nike is in the wrong and won't support them, then YOU live that truth and if people presented with the same info that you were presented with make a different conclusion deal with it and not pout and try to shame folks into agreeing with you
 
Back
Top Bottom