Mary Cain used to be the fastest girl runner in America, until she signed with the Nike Oregon Project. She used to break national and world records, and obviously wanted to break more. She trusted her running career to be safe and improve with Nike, but they did the exact opposite. This past week, Mary opened up about her traumatic experiences in an opinion article she submitted to The New York Times, which included a seven-minute video explaining the details of what she went through (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/opinion/nike-running-mary-cain.html?searchResultPosition=1).
Her coach, Alberto Salazar, emotionally and physically abused her. He was the most famous track coach in the world and worked with talented runners such as Mo Farah, Galen Rupp, Alan Webb, Dathan Ritzenhein, and many more. Because of this, Mary was clearly very ecstatic about the opportunity. Little did she know about the evils of the Nike Oregon Project.
When Mary began her training, the entirely-male staff kept telling her that he needs to become thinner in order to become faster. Meanwhile, Mary is already a thin person, being 5’7 and 111 pounds. While the coaches were telling her all of this, the team had no certified sports psychologists and no certified nutritionists. Therefore there was no one there to tell her that what the coaches were telling her and doing to her was unhealthy. She felt trapped because the staff was basically made up of all of Alberto’s friends, and when she tried to go to them for help, they would just tell her to listen to Alberto. Alberto weighed her in front of her teammates and would shame her if she did not meet the weight he wanted. He wanted to give Mary birth control pills and diuretics (pills which increase the amount of water and salt coming out of the body) to lose weight, which is completely illegal in track and field. This abuse actually resulted in Mary running terribly. My mom always told me that running is 90% mental and 10% ability. This proved to be true for Mary because she said in the film that she knew she lost a race before she even started it. She was too busy focusing on the weight she was not able to hit, instead of being focused on her training and the race.
Although it is true for most sports that athletes must maintain a certain weight, what Mary’s coach was making her do was extremely unhealthy for her. When females are pushed beyond their limits, they are at risk of developing RED-S syndrome. This is when a woman will end up not getting her period due to the extremes her body is going through. Mary did not get her period for a total of three years. Due to her missing periods, she lacked a healthy amount of estrogen one needs in order to maintain strong bone health. During her time with the Nike Oregon Project, she broke a total of five bones.
Mary explains in the video how “scared, alone, and trapped” she felt while “training” with Nike and Alberto. These feelings resulted in Mary becoming suicidal, she began to cut herself. People on the team actually saw her cutting herself, and did not do anything about it. She ran a bad race in May during 2015, and Alberto yelled at her in front of all of her teammates, telling her she “clearly gained five pounds before the race.” Meanwhile, this was the same day Mary told Alberto and the sports psychologist that she was self-harming. And you know what their reaction was to that? They said that they were “tired and just wanted to go to bed.” Mary received no physical or mental support while running with the Nike Oregon Project. Alberto did nothing to make sure her mental health was okay, he did not care. He did not properly coach her or help her be the best she could be.
What angers me the most about this situation is Alberto’s punishment for this is being banned for four years. That is all, just four years. Not to mention he also had a four-year ban for illegal doping once before. Mary mentions towards the end of the video that there has to be something done about the corrupt system at Nike, specifically the Nike Oregon Project. A four-year ban is not enough, she says that all of the coaches need to be fired and there has to be a whole new set of coaches, sports psychologists, and nutritionists. If Alberto and his friends do not get fired, these monstrosities will continue. Talented athletes will continue to feel trapped and their mental health will deteriorate. Suicidal thoughts may prevail, which brings me to my conclusion.
I think that the running community, or anyone, need to protest the Nike Oregon Project and Nike in general. They need to protest the pathetic ban that Alberto is on, and demand that he and his colleagues need to be fired. Runners do not train with the Nike Oregon Project to be emotionally and physically abused, they sign with them to improve themselves and do what they love. Running is their life, and it is a shame that Nike is not helping them achieve their dreams.
Overall, I am very proud of Mary for coming out and telling her story. She is so brave for being open about her mental health, and she has probably helped so many other people out there who are struggling with weight, suicidal thoughts, and/or self-harm. I think this is a tremendous step in the right direction for the running community. I hope to see Mary channel her inner activist and get Alberto Salazar and his colleagues all fired, banning them from coaching ever again.
Additional sources: http://www.usatf.org/Athlete-Bios/Mary-Cain.aspx (Height and weight of Mary Cain)