Major claims
A BBC Panorama documentary, aired on Wednesday night, claims that leading athletics coach Alberto Salazar has been supervising US 10,000m champion Galen Rupp’s use of performance enhancing drugs since the athlete was 16-years-old.
The programme alleges that Rupp, Mo Farah’s training partner, has been taking testosterone since he was 16 under the supervision of Salazar, the acclaimed coach of both Rupp and Farah.
The documentary also makes uncomfortable claims about the heralded Nike training camp in Oregon.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Farah, and both Rupp and Salazar deny the accusations, but the claims carry significant weight.
Panorama alleges #Farah's training partner Galen Rupp has taken testosterone since he was 16 under the supervision of coach Alberto Salazar
— Ed Aarons (@ed_aarons) June 3, 2015
Steve Magness, who was Salazar’s assistant in 2011, tells the documentary that he saw a document charting the blood levels of the athletes training in Oregon which left him in no doubt said Rupp was on “testosterone medication”.
“Under one of Galen’s it had ‘currently on testosterone and prednisone medication’ and when I saw that I kind of jumped backwards,” Magness says.
“Testosterone is obviously banned and everyone knew that. It was all the way back in high school – and that was incredibly shocking. At that point I actually took a picture of it. I wanted to essentially to have evidence in case something happened.”
Rupp finished second to Farah in the 10,000m at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
