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Mo Farah of Great Britain, multi-time Olympic and World Athletics champion in the 5,000-metre and 10,000-metre distances has admitted to lying to authorities in the past, twice this week. Once when he was questioned by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) about injecting the amino acid L-carnitine and again, in respect to his relationship with Somalian coach Jama Adan.
Apparently both Nike Oregon Project athletes Galen Rupp and Farah were investigated during the 2012 London Olympics for injecting L-carnitine. The amino acid at the time was not on the banned list – it was not on anyone’s radar as a performance-enhancing substance, however, the act of injecting large volumes may have been.
Propublica published a story Sunday, Feb. 23 about alleged communications between coach Alberto Salazar and Dr. Rob Chakraverty about injecting L-carnitine into Farah before the 2014 London Marathon.
Also involved were UK Athletics (UKA) head of distance running Barry Fudge, former UKA performance director Neil Black and Farah’s coach at the time Alberto Salazar.
“Documents show Farah repeatedly denied to US Anti-Doping (Usada) investigators he had received injections of the controversial supplement L-carnitine before the 2014 London Marathon.
Farah later changed his account to Usada investigators, saying he had forgotten.
The documents also reveal how a UK Athletics official was dispatched to Switzerland to collect the legal supplement from a contact of Salazar’s.”
Jama Aden
Aden was busted in Sabadell, Spain, but was later released. Spanish police had him under surveillance for over a month and apparently produced images of him taking PEDs paraphernalia to the garbage dumpster at the back of the hotel that he and apparently up to 22 athletes were staying at. Apparently, approximately 20 loaded needles were discovered in his possession. On-site, 20 of 22 athletes are alleged to have been tested.
Somehow, he managed to escape a ban.
Farah, when asked about his relationship with Aden said, “he is just a fan and was just holding the stopwatch for me.”
More recently Farah admitted that he knew Aden well.
Read the Telegraph story here>>
Salazar was banned for four years in 2019 and the Nike Oregon Project was shut down for good. His athletes have scrambled to find new coaches during the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Rupp, who will be racing the US Olympic Trials in Atlanta, GA this Sunday has gone with Mike Smith of Northern Arizona University, while Jordan Hasay, also in Atlanta has hired, as an arms-length coach-advisor, former marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe.
Both athletes dropped out of the Chicago Marathon in October 2019.
Monday, the BBC published Salazar’s dramatic fall from grace. According to the article, Salazar was so obsessed with Kara Goucher’s weight after having a baby, he would talk openly about the size of her breasts.
Salazar continues to deny allegations and is appealing the four-year ban. In the process, allegations continue to flow including the dramatic Mary Cain-New York Times video op-ed that told the story of mental abuse apparently carried out by Salazar’s win at all costs attitude.
