London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Jul 31, 2025

Nike To Investigate Runner Mary Cain's Claims Of Abuse At Its Oregon Project

Nike To Investigate Runner Mary Cain's Claims Of Abuse At Its Oregon Project

The sports company's move came after the former teen phenom told a harrowing account of mental and physical abuse she says she suffered under disgraced distance running coach Alberto Salazar.

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.

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."


 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.


"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.

"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.' "

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Former Judge Charged After Drunk Driving Crash Kills Comedian in Brazil
Jeff Bezos hasn’t paid a dollar in taxes for decades. He makes billions and pays $0 in taxes, LEGALLY
China Increases Use of Exit Bans Amid Rising U.S. Tensions
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Procter & Gamble to Raise U.S. Prices to Offset One‑Billion‑Dollar Tariff Cost
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
Botswana Seeks Controlling Stake in De Beers as Anglo American Prepares Exit
Trump Administration Proposes Repeal of Obama‑Era Endangerment Finding, Dismantling Regulatory Basis for CO₂ Emissions Limits
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
A family has been arrested in the UK for displaying the British flag
Mel Gibson refuses to work with Robert De Niro, saying, "Keep that woke clown away from me."
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
The British propaganda channel BBC News lies again.
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
×