Alberto Salazar and Galen Rupp are under growing pressure after the US Anti-Doping Agency began investigating new claims that vials of clear liquid and bags of needles were found at camps involving Mo Farah’s coach and training partner.
Salazar and Rupp, who have worked for years with double Olympic champion Farah, are the subject of doping allegations — which they strongly deny — made in a BBC Panorama documentary. New claims, revealed by Sportsmail for the first
time, provide more questions to answer and put further pressure on Farah and UK Athletics to stop working with Salazar.
John Stiner, a sports massage therapist employed by Salazar for an altitude training camp in Park City, Utah, in June 2008, has told USADA he found vials in the fridge and a bag of unused hypodermic needles in the bathroom of one of the apartments they rented.
He found them when Salazar asked Stiner to clean up after him and Rupp following their return to Nike headquarters in Portland, Oregon. In the BBC documentary, Stiner also said Salazar told him he would find a tube of testosterone gel in his room.
Now the full details of a testimony Stiner shared with USADA on Monday can be disclosed. ‘He (Salazar) says there’s a package, or a product, “in the refrigerator that I also want you to take and keep it cold — it’s got to be kept cold”,’ said Stiner. ‘I looked at the vials and they had a white tape, like someone had placed them very neatly on there. It said “allergy one” and “allergy two”.’
In the bathroom Stiner then ‘found a bag of needles’. ‘Hypodermic needles, in a big bag, unused,’ he said. ‘Maybe 25, maybe 50 needles. While I’m doing this I’m starting to wonder what is going on here?’
Stiner claims Salazar asked him to send the items to his home in Portland. Indeed, Stiner still has what he says was the shipping receipt for $150.
Rupp was one of a number of athletes training with Salazar in Park City. Three years later in July 2011, Rupp was in France training with Farah and others from UK Athletics. The camp was also attended by Steve Magness, the young American coach and one-time assistant to Salazar, who gave evidence against his former boss in the BBC film. Magness has also made allegations to USADA, claiming he found an unmarked vial in France that belonged to Rupp. Magness says he was in a hire car with another athlete from the Nike project, Australian distance runner Jackie Areson, driving to the airport where they intended to return the car when they found the vial. Magness has confirmed this to Sportsmail.
Magness has provided this newspaper with emails he says were sent to him first by Salazar then by Rupp, urgently requesting return of the vial. Magness says he followed Salazar’s instructions to ‘Fedex’ it to Rupp. The email made the request for the return of ‘Galen’s allergy serum’ on July 12, 2011. Four days later, Magness received an email apparently from Rupp, concerned that his ‘allergy serum’ had not arrived.
Attempts to put these allegations to Salazar and Rupp have proved unsuccessful. Salazar refused to speak when Sportsmail went to his home in Portland on Sunday and last night both men failed to respond to emails detailing the testimonies. Both have denied allegations that Salazar misuses prescription drugs to improve performance of his athletes, while they also deny a claim that Rupp has been using testosterone medication since he was 16. That said, Salazar has yet to provide the proof he says will show witnesses linked to the Nike Oregon Project — believed to be up to 17 — have made false statements. It is well documented that Rupp, the American who won Olympic silver behind Farah in the 10,000 metres at London 2012, suffers from allergies. But Sportsmail spoke to a London-based allergy expert yesterday, who said that while some vial-based allergy medication does require refrigeration, apparent failure to correctly label the liquids represents poor medical practice. This type of medication should generally only be administered by a specialist doctor, as incorrect usage could result in anaphylaxis — a serious allergic reaction.
There is no suggestion Farah has done anything wrong but being associated with Salazar while USADA are looking into him is damaging. – Daily Mail