Mo Farah’s training partner Galen Rupp and coach Alberto Salazar accused of doping

Mo Farah’s training partner Galen Rupp accused of doping by Panorama
BBC programme alleges trainer Alberto Salazar uses ‘banned methods’
Farah strenuously denies he has ever taken any illegal drugs
Steve Magness, who has provided evidence, does not suggest Farah is in any way implicated

Published:
17:37 GMT, 3 June 2015

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Updated:
07:01 GMT, 4 June 2015

Mo Farah was plunged into a doping controversy on Wednesday night after allegations that his training partner, Galen Rupp, has taken the banned anabolic steroid testosterone since the age of 16, under the supervision of Alberto Salazar, who coaches both men.

BBC’s Panorama alleged a widespread cloak-and-dagger culture of drug abuse in Salazar’s American camp in Portland, Oregon — where Farah has trained since 2011 — including pills hidden in hollowed-out paperback novels and the doping of a schoolboy prodigy.

But Farah, 5,000 metres and 10,000m gold medallist at the 2012 London Olympics, insisted: ‘I have not taken any banned substances and Alberto has never suggested that I take a banned substance.

Mo Farah’s partner Galen Rupp (left) and coach Alberto Salazar (centre) have been accused of doping

Rupp has been taking a performance-enhancing drug since he was 16, according to the BBC’s Panorama

Farah came home in first place in the 10,000m final at the London Olympics with Rupp in second

‘From my experience, Alberto and the Oregon Project have always followed Wada (World Anti- Doping Agency) rules.’

Allegations in the documentary came from former athletes and coaches involved with the Nike Oregon Project group, which Salazar oversees, and threaten to bring down the richest and most successful endurance running operation in the world.

It is suggested Rupp, now 29, who was second behind close friend Farah, 32, in the 10,000m in 2012, regularly took the asthma drug prednisone, which is banned in competition. Some of the most shocking claims are made by coach Steve Magness, chosen by Salazar to be his No 2 in 2011. He told the BBC he had documents which show Rupp was on testosterone even when he was in high school.

The BBC Panorama programme has alleged coach Salazar uses ‘banned methods and unethical practices’

British athlete Farah said in a statement to the programme: ‘I have not taken any banned substances’

Jupp, Farah and Ethiopia bronze medalist Tariku Bekele pose together with their medals at London 2012

‘One day when I was at the office some people from Nike lab brought up lab reports and put them on Alberto’s desk,’ said Magness. ‘It was basically the blood levels of every athlete who had been in the Nike Oregon Project.

‘I started flipping through the book and came across Galen’s.

‘Under one it had “currently on testosterone and prednisone medication”, and when I saw that, I kind of jumped backwards. I was like, wait a minute, like on testosterone medication? When I looked a little further I saw it was all the way back in high school — and that was incredibly shocking.’

WADA rules say that athlete support personnel involved in doping someone as young as 16 could be liable for a lifetime ban. WADA chief executive David Howman said he was ‘totally shocked and very disappointed’ by the BBC claims.

Speaking from WADA’s Montreal headquarters, Howman said: ‘We are trying to get access to the BBC footage. I do not know how easy that will be — but that’s what we are undertaking at the moment. It’s probably sensible not to say too much until we have seen the footage of the programme, but if the allegations are as serious as they have been reported, then they need to be investigated beyond a national level.’

While Farah is not implicated in the allegations, it will be damaging to the double Olympic champion’s reputation to be linked to a doping scandal on this scale.

Rupp, Farah and Cam Levins (second left) are put through their paces by coach Salazar back in 2013

Steve Magness, who provided the BBC with evidence, does not suggest Farah is in any way implicated

Indeed, Farah has been urged to seriously reconsider where he trains and the company he keeps after the wide-ranging investigation.

Andy Parkinson, a former UK Anti-Doping Agency boss, said: ‘On the basis of the allegations, any athlete who’s involved or associated with this group, including Mo Farah, should be seeking the necessary assurances around the fact that they’re operating within a safe environment.

‘Athletes have got a responsibility to have a close look at that, and to ask the question of themselves — “Do I feel comfortable in this environment and am I going to be able to compete clean in it?” ’

All Farah’s successes on the global stage have come since he, along with wife Tania and family, moved to the US to work with Salazar in early 2011. Much of his success has been put down to the focus Salazar puts on technology and biomechanics.

Farah has been urged to seriously reconsider where he trains and the company he keeps in future

Farah and Rupp stretch together while Salazar watches on at the Oregon Nike campus in 2013

But Kara Goucher, who was America’s most successful endurance runner and trained at the Nike Oregon Project for seven years before leaving in 2011, said Salazar was constantly pushing boundaries and looking for loopholes.

‘He is a sort of winner-at-all-costs person,’ she said, ‘and it’s hurting the sport and if the sport is to be saved it can’t keep going on the way it is.

‘For years Salazar was a super important person in my life. I loved him, he was a father figure to me, so this feels like a bit of a betrayal and I feel bad about that. But he put me in this position.’

Another alleged episode which casts a bad light on Salazar’s methods could be from the pages of a crime thriller.

Magness flew to Dusseldorf where Rupp was competing in a 5,000m race in February 2011. Soon after he arrived, Rupp told him he wasn’t feeling well and Magness called Salazar, who, he says, told him to expect a package.

Kara Goucher said Salazar was constantly pushing boundaries and looking for loopholes

Goucher trained at the Nike Oregon Project with Salazar for seven years before leaving in 2011

Two days later, a box arrived at his hotel and inside it he found a paperback thriller — a section of the pages had been hollowed out to form a compartment into which two pills were taped. ‘At that point,’ Magness told American website ProPublica, ‘my mind was like, this is stuff you see in movies — extremely strange.’

Both Salazar and Rupp refused to comment on this alleged incident.

Salazar is also alleged to have asked his son, Alex, to conduct a test to determine how much testosterone cream would trigger a positive drugs test.

The BBC also allege that six other people contacted the US Anti-Doping Agency to warn of wrongdoing at the Nike Oregon Project. In a statement to the BBC, Salazar said: ‘I have never coached an athlete to manipulate testing procedures or undermine the rules that govern our sport.’ He also said the legal supplement Testoboost had been ‘incorrectly recorded as “testosterone medication”,’ and ‘the allegations were based upon false assumptions and half-truths’.

Rupp said: ‘I have not taken any banned substances and Alberto has never suggested that I do so.’

Farah is due to compete at the Birmingham Diamond League this Sunday — a meeting which is suddenly attracting a lot more attention.