I was the fastest
girl in America. “Mary Cain!” “There are women here almost
twice her age” “being left in her wake.“ I set many national records. And I was a straight-A student. “C’mon, Mary Cain!” When I was 16, I got a call from
Alberto Salazar at Nike. He was the world’s most famous
track coach and he told me I was the most talented
athlete he’d ever seen. During my freshman year in college,
I moved out to train with him and his team full time at Nike world headquarters. It was a team of the fastest
athletes in the world. And it was a dream come true. I joined Nike because I wanted
to be the best female athlete, ever. Instead, I was
emotionally and physically abused by a system designed by
Alberto and endorsed by Nike. This is what happened to me. When I first arrived, an all-male Nike staff became convinced that in order for me to get better, I had to become thinner,
and thinner, and thinner. This Nike team was the
top running program in the country. And yet we had no certified
sports psychologist. There was no certified
nutritionist. It was really just
a bunch of people who were Alberto’s friends. So when I went to
anybody for help, they would always just
tell me the same thing. And that was to listen to Alberto. Alberto was constantly trying
to get me to lose weight. He created an arbitrary
number of 114 pounds, and he would usually weigh
me in front of my teammates and publicly shame me if
I wasn’t hitting weight. 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. It reached a point where
I was on the starting line and I’d lost the race before
I started, because in my head all I was thinking of was not
the time I was trying to hit but the number on the scale
I saw earlier that day. It would be naïve to not
acknowledge the fact that weight is
important in sports. Like boxers need to maintain
a certain weight, or you know everybody always
ends up citing the math about how
the thinner you are, the faster you’re going
to run because you have to carry less weight. But here’s a biology lesson
I learned the hard way. When young women are forced to
push themselves beyond what they’re capable at
their given age, they’re at risk for developing RED–S. Suddenly, you realize you’ve
lost your period for a couple months. And then a couple months
becomes a couple years. And in my case, it
was a total of three. And if you’re not
getting your period, you’re not going
to be able to have the necessary
levels of estrogen to maintain strong
bone health. And in my case, I broke
five different bones. The New York Times
Magazine published a story about how Alberto was
training me and nurturing my talent. We weren’t doing any of that. I felt so scared. I felt so alone. And I felt so
trapped. And I started to have suicidal thoughts. I started to cut myself. Some people saw
me cutting myself and ... sorry. Nobody really did
anything or said anything. So in 2015, I ran this race, and I didn’t run super well. And afterwards, there
was a thunderstorm going on. Half the
track was under one tent. Alberto yelled at
me in front of everybody else at the meet,
and he told me that I’d clearly gained five
pounds before the race. It was also that night that I told
Alberto and our sports psych that I was cutting myself. And they pretty much told me
they just wanted to go to bed. And I think for me, that was
my kick in the head where I was like, “This
system is sick.” I think even for my parents
in certain ways, once I finally
vocalized to them, I mean, they were horrified. They bought me the first
plane ride home. And they were like,
”Get on that flight. Get the hell out of there.” I wasn’t even trying to
make the Olympics anymore. I was just trying to survive. So I made the painful choice and I quit the team. “After a multiyear investigation, the U.S. anti-doping
agency has banned Alberto Salazar from the
sport for four years.” “Nike will shut down
the Oregon project.” “Nike C.E.O. Mark
Parker stepping down from the company
in January of 2020.” Those reforms are
mostly a direct result of the doping scandal. They’re 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 by an emotionally
and physically abusive system. That’s what needs to change,
and here’s how we can do it. First, Nike needs to
change. In track and field, Nike is all powerful. They control the top
coaches, athletes, races, even the governing body. You can’t just fire a coach
and eliminate a program and pretend the
problem is solved. My worry is that
Nike is merely going to rebrand
the old program and put Alberto’s old
assistant coaches in charge. Secondly, we need
more women in power. Part of me wonders
if I had worked with more female psychologists,
nutritionists and even coaches where I’d be today. I got caught in a system
designed by and for men, which destroys the
bodies of young girls. Rather than force young
girls to fend for themselves, we have to protect them. I genuinely do have
hope for the sport. And I plan to be running
for many years to come. And so part of the
reason I’m doing this now is I want to end this chapter and I want to start a new one.
I can understand a 4 year ban for an athlete who was doping at the instruction of a coach, but for the coach running the program, anything other than a lifetime ban seems too short.
Nike supported Salazar knowing they were supporting a guy that doped his athletes.
There is no downside for Nike's pushing doper coaches.
I ran under Pete Julian (Salazar's assistant coach pictured in the video) when he was coaching at Washington State University. He is the reason I quit running altogether. To this day, I battle depression that surfaced during my time as an athlete under Julian.
My experience parallels Mary's to a frightening degree. No help. Ruthless coaching. "Just shut up and run" mentality. I was saddened when I heard that he would be helping "coach" the world's elite at Nike.
I hope, for the sake of all athletes who have had the displeasure of competing under these vile men, that neither Salazar nor Julian are allowed to coach anywhere ever again.
Didn't expect to watch the whole video, but I'm glad I did. There's a lot of seriously messed up stuff here. Good on Mary to have the courage to share her story with the world and to stand up to morally bankrupt corporations like Nike.
Mary: Please ... help me.
Nike: Just do it.
It's not a Nike problem, it's not a male coaches vs female athlete's problem, it's not a running problem.
It's a structural problem in all professional sports. Head coaches in every sport operate with impunity, with the more money involved resulting in more unchecked power.
I worked in a D1 university sports medicine dept. around a lot of PTs, Docs, dietitian's, and intelligent administrators. The decisions of the head coach overpowers the decisions of all of those people combined. Every day.
Head coaches are the physical embodiment of a multi-million dollar investment in a billion-dollar industry. Their "vision" supersedes everything else because they are essentially an elected president who only get checked on when they lose.
Any exposure is good I suppose, but the fact that this story is combined with the Salazar doping story is unfortunate, because it takes away from the fact that the primary victims here are 19-22 year old college students that don't know any better and are under immense pressure to perform.
I guess what I'm saying is, don't focus all your vitriol at Nike, because I can guarantee this shit is happening in multiple sports at every D1 school in the NCAA right now.
This is gutting. It's pretty amazing the amount of negligence Nike has shown with Salazar and his boys club. Add that to the Vapour fly kerfuffle and its very disappointing to see what they are doing to the most accessible sport out there. As a runner I'd never buy Nike again
I remember reading that NY Magazine article about her a few years ago and was actually wondering last week what became of her. I hope she can recover and get back to doing what she likes to do.
If you crossposted this to r/sneakers they wouldnt accept it. Theyd deny it and get angry that youre spoiling their vibes and continue to purchase nikes and jordans.