The fastest girl in America

[pat c]

Video: Opinion | I Was the Fastest Girl in America, Until I Joined Nike

At 17, Mary Cain was already a record-breaking phenom: the fastest girl in a generation, and the youngest American track and field athlete to make a World Championships team. Then, everything changed.

www.nytimes.com

This is about an eating disorder. If it's been posted, Admins please delete it or if you think it's in the wrong area.......please move it. Thanks.

Interesting vid.

 

[Sylvia]

Mary Cain also came up in this thread in the Other Sports forum (ETA: thanks to the Admin. who moved this thread here from the TC ): https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...lazars-4-year-suspension.106137/#post-5679311

 

[Sylvia]

Abuse claims push runners to share Nike stories

Former teen running star Mary Cain's account this week of body-shaming and alleged psychological abuse at the recently disbanded Nike Oregon Project is prompting other top athletes to come forward.

www.espn.com

Excerpts:

Former teen running star Mary Cain's account this week of body-shaming and alleged psychological abuse at the recently disbanded Nike Oregon Project is prompting other top athletes to come forward.
Amy Yoder Begley, a 10,000-meter runner, said Friday that she was told she had the "biggest butt on the starting line." Kara Goucher's husband said the Olympian endured "disgusting" comments from coaches.
...
Cain said she was harangued to lose weight and publicly humiliated when she didn't hit targets, stopped having her period for three years, and lost so much bone density she broke five bones. She said it got to the point where she started cutting herself and having suicidal thoughts. She left the program in 2016.

Nike said in a statement these are "deeply troubling allegations which have not been raised by Mary or her parents before. Mary was seeking to rejoin the Oregon Project and Alberto's team as recently as April of this year and had not raised these concerns as part of that process."
Cain acknowledged looking to work with Salazar again, noting she did so because "when we let people emotionally break us, we crave their approval more than anything." She said Salazar's doping ban helped her find the clarity to speak out about the abusive conditions.
The sportswear giant also said it will "take the allegations extremely seriously and will launch an immediate investigation to hear from former Oregon Project athletes."

 

[MacMadame]

It's not just about an eating disorder though. It's about how elite athletes are abused and pushed beyond their limits in the name of winning.

Even though it's about a program in track and field, we know there are coaches using these methods in figure skating. The question is what we can do about it. I'm watching Anna Sherbakova win Cup of China right now. She does look like she's being abused. But if she is, is my enjoyment of her skating contributing to the problem? I don't know.

 

[genevieve]

aaargh I wish Deadspin hasn't just imploded.

 

[Seerek]

Sadly, I think we're still scratching the surface as to the fallout of Oregon Project, whether it's training methods or doping. That's why I'm concerned that runners like Konstanze Klosterhalfen likely underwent similar experiences before the Project's closure.

 

[Miezekatze]

I doubt Konstanze did, since she joined very late, after I'd guess the worst methods weren't used anymore.

I was incredibly annoyed by Konstanzes habit of constantly actively trying to whitewash the project and downplay what happened until the bitter end, when being asked directly in interviews (even other German athletes critisized her for it) even though everybody knew what was going on. She was still making excuses and denying problems even after Salazar had been suspended.

I'm sure she'd still train there if it hadn't been shut down.

 

[nimi]

Another Oregon Project runner posted about her experiences on IG:

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www.instagram.com

Excerpt: "I'm so grateful for not having Alberto as my coach, despite being part of the Oregon project. But it wasn't only him, it was a culture of male egos all feeding off eachother engaging in this behavior. One who was just as bad was Darren Treasure, who also needs to be held accountable in this story. This isn't news. I, along with others, have been vocal about this. It's only now that people are finally listening."

 

[ilovepaydays]

USATF has tweeted out a statement. I think this rivals USA Gymnastics in lameness.

 

[overedge]

USATF has tweeted out a statement. I think this rivals USA Gymnastics in lameness.

USFS too. What it should really say is "We support our athletes in being brave and coming forward, but only the well-known ones, and even though we turned a blind eye to all this sh*t when it was going on".

 

[Aceon6]

I wish every sports governing body would be forced to report cases of hypothalamic amenorrhea to an independent agency so the coaches involved can be educated and, if needed, properly disciplined. It’s as bad as doping.