Former Alberto Salazar colleague: 'No one is going to test positive... The chemists will always win'
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Updated 10/06/2015 at 09:49 GMT
A top athletics coach who used to work with Mo Farah's coach Alberto Salazar at the Oregon Project has made some stunning claims about doping.
A picture taken on September 4, 2011 shows US coach Alberto Salazar (C) hugging US athlete Bernard Lagat (R) and US athlete Galen Rupp following the men's 5,000 metres final at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championsh
Image credit: AFP
In an interview with Runners World magazine, 73-year-old coach John Cook openly suggested that doping is widespread, but claimed that no athlete will ever be caught.
“I think it’s pretty obvious that drug testing can be circumvented in pretty much every corner," said Cook, who coached former 1,500m world champion Abidi Bile.
“No one is going to test positive. It’s just not going to happen
“If you take the testing objectively, and you never fail a drug test, as far as the average person is concerned, if you’re negative, you’re negative, and that means you’re a good guy.
“But that’s not what’s happening. No one is going to test positive."
Cook cites the fact that shamed sprint champion Marion Jones never tested positive despite admitting using performance-enhancing drugs - and added that new compounds are in use which leave the bloodstream inside 90 minutes.
"The testing is a joke, and it can’t be enforced universally," he added.
"The chemists will always win. It makes no difference what kind of [testing] program you design."
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Coach Alberto Salazar
Image credit: Reuters
From 2003 to 2005 Cook spent 18 months working at the notorious Oregon Project, the Nike-funded training camp in the USA where Alberto Salazar has turned Mo Farah into a world beater with multiple Olympic and World Championship gold medals.
There is no suggestion that Farah has ever been involved in doping, but last week a BBC documentary alleged that former marathon superstar Salazar was involved in doping Farah's training partner Galen Rupp.
Rupp famously claimed Olympic silver behind Farah in 2012, and the image of him cheering his friend and colleague over the line is one of the enduring images of the London Games.
Cook left the Oregon Project after 18 months, and before Farah signed up, explaining that he was not comfortable with what he saw.
"There were some things I just didn’t like," he said, going on to suggest that athletes were finding ways to get spurious medical exemptions to allow them to use certain substances.
"Agreeing to work with the Oregon Project was one of my huge mistakes," he said.
“The hypoxic houses [altitude chambers] and the this and the that, it all costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Getting a Therapeutic Use Exemption for an inhaler can be very easily done.
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Drugs test (Imago)
Image credit: Imago
“If I take you and run you up and down the stairs five or six or seven times, then take you into the doctor, you’re going to be asthmatic and fail the test and going to be allowed to take an inhaler.
“But if you’re are healthy why the hell would you need an inhaler? I was somewhat concerned about that.
“I don’t think everybody has a thyroid problem. I don’t think everybody is asthmatic. But I can get you to fail that test in a heartbeat."
The interview comes a day after Salazar issued a new statement denying that he or any of his athletes have ever been involved in doping.
"The BBC have engaged in inaccurate and unfounded journalism, with a complete lack of regard for both Galen [Rupp] and Mo [Farah]," Salazar said.
“Given the time and effort the BBC committed to making these false allegations I hope that the media and fans will afford me a short time to show the accusers are knowingly making false statements.
“I will document and present the facts as quickly as I can so that Galen and Mo can focus on doing what they love and have worked so hard to achieve.”
OUR VIEW
We await Salazar's rebuttal of the BBC allegations with interest, but Cook's comments truly hit home. And one other comment he made is a chilling warning:
"I follow the sport without particularly much fervour or excitement because I know too much," he added. "When I was naïve, I liked it a lot more. I’ve been turned off pretty much."
If fans across the world begin to know too much as well, the whole world of athletics could face a seriously troubled future.
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