For the men and women in the Nike Oregon Project who became whistle-blowers in the case against Alberto Salazar, it has been a long 10 years.

They have been ridiculed, castigated and dismissed, as those who take on people in positions of power often are. Then, last Monday, some measure of validation finally arrived. After a six-year investigation that included a two-year legal battle, the United States Anti-Doping Agency suspended Salazar, the coach and famed former runner, for four years, along with Jeffrey Brown, a Houston endocrinologist who treated many of the project’s top runners.

It was a stunning downfall for Salazar, who has dominated distance running for decades, first as a champion runner, then as a coach tasked with developing champions for the world’s biggest sports apparel company. For those who blew the whistle and testified against Salazar, the suspension landed with a thud. No sense of joy or triumph; rather, a moment to consider the mess that was made of their lives.

“It’s been an emotional and heavy last few weeks,” said Kara Goucher, an Olympian who once regarded Salazar as a father figure, then went to the F.B.I. and USADA in 2011 when she could no longer stomach tactics that she believed constituted cheating.