Former middle-distance runner Mary Cain, once dubbed “the fastest girl in America,” detailed her tragic experience as a member of Nike’s Oregon Project in a video for The New York Times published Thursday.
The 23-year-old Bronxville native recalled the physical and mental abuse she endured when she was 17, while training with Nike’s Alberto Salazar, claiming that the highly touted track and field coach forced her to lose weight and ignored her acts of self-harm.
“I joined Nike because I wanted to be the best female athlete ever,” Cain said in the video. “Instead, I was emotionally and physically abused by a system designed by Alberto and endorsed by Nike.”
In an email to the Times, Salazar denied many of Cain’s accusations and claimed to support her health and welfare. However, Cain, who set multiple U.S. junior records when she was in high school, describes scenes where Salazar would weigh her in front of her teammates and publicly shame her if she wasn’t hitting her weight.
Cain said that she worked with an all-male coaching staff and there wasn’t a certified sports psychologist or a certified nutritionist available for her.
Nike announced Thursday that it is investigating Cain’s allegations against Salazar, who received a four-year ban in September for, among other violations, possessing and trafficking testosterone. The company had already shut down the Oregon Project last month.
“These are deeply troubling allegations which have not been raised by Mary or her parents before,” Nike said in a statement. “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.
“We take the allegations extremely seriously and will launch an immediate investigation to hear from former Oregon Project athletes. At Nike we seek to always put the athlete at the center of everything we do, and these allegations are completely inconsistent with our values.”
Multiple prominent runners, including New York City Marathon winner Shalane Flanagan, have spoken out in support of Cain. Olympic runner Kara Goucher backed up Cain’s allegations and criticized Nike’s handling of the situation on Twitter Friday.
“So [Nike] responds to [Cain],” Goucher wrote. “Takes the time to victim shame Mary, before saying they will investigate. I hope you come to me, because I have stories to match all of Mary’s claims and so much more. Don’t let this be more lip service, actually do something.”
She developed a syndrome called exercise-induced amenorrhea, which causes a lack of estrogen and causes women to lose their period, along with potential for developing osteoporosis and bone density issues. Cain lost her period for three years and broke five different bones while training with the Nike Oregon Project.
“He wanted to give me birth control pills and diuretics to lose weight – the latter of which isn’t allowed in track and field. I ran terrible during this time,” said Cain, who eventually started having suicidal thoughts and began self-harming to cope with the stress.
Cain said her breaking point came after a race where she under-performed in 2015. She says Salazar yelled at her in front of the whole team and told her that she had “clearly gained five pounds before the race.” Cain told Salazar and a sports psychologist that night about her self-harm, but she said the two “pretty much told me they just wanted to go to bed.”
In the Times video, Cain called Nike out directly, saying the multinational corporation “is not acknowledging the fact that there is a systemic crisis in women’s sports and at Nike, in which young girls’ bodies are being ruined.”