Nike Oregon coach Alberto Salazar forcefully denied allegations made against him by Mary Cain, a former Nike Oregon Project athlete who trained with him from 2013 to 2016.

In a video released Thursday by The New York Times, Cain alleged she suffered injury and emotional abuse while training with the Oregon Project as a teen runner, and the abuse led her to harm herself. She said she was weight-shamed by Salazar, and encouraged to take birth-control medication and diuretics in an effort to control her weight.

In the written response sent late Thursday evening, Salazar says:

“Mary’s father is a medical doctor, and both of her parents were deeply involved in her training, competition and health throughout the period she was coached by me. For example, Mary’s father consulted on medications and supplements Mary used during her time at the NOP. Neither of her parents nor Mary raised any of the issues that she now suggests occurred while I was coaching her. To be clear, I never encouraged her, or worse yet, shamed her, to maintain an unhealthy weight.”

Salazar writes: “Mary at times struggled to find and maintain her ideal performance and training weight."

He said in those instances he consulted her father and referred Cain to a female doctor.

The doctor “would have been responsible for prescribing Mary with any medication, including birth control pills. And of course, as I have said many times before, I have never given, encouraged or suggested that any of my athletes take any banned substance, ever.”

He writes that contrary to Cain’s allegations, the Oregon Project team included both a nutritionist and a sports psychologist.

Cain contends she left Portland in 2015 and returned to her family home in New York, although she continued to train as a member of the Oregon Project through the 2016 U.S. Olympic trials.

Salazar writes that Cain traveled to Portland in April of this year and asked him to resume coaching her. He says he and Cain were in communication by email and text message as recently as July. He says she asked his advice about training and recovery from injury in the emails and text message.

He enclosed a text message he says Cain sent to him in April that included this passage:

“Thanks again so much for a great trip -- I’m excited to be working together again and I really want this. Haha got back to a chilly morning in NY and even skipped class just to prioritize training and recovery since that’s my No. 1.”

Cain responded with a statement released to The New York Times. The statement reads, in part:

"For many years, the only thing I wanted in the world was the approval of Alberto Salazar. I still loved him. Alberto was like a father to me, or even like a god.

"Last spring, I told Alberto I wanted to work with him again — only him — because when we let people emotionally break us, we crave their approval more than anything.

"I was the victim of an abusive system, an abusive man. I was constantly tormented by the conflict of wanting to be free from him and wanting to go back to the way things used to be, when I was his favorite.

“Last month, after the doping report dropped that led to his suspension, I felt this quick and sudden release. That helped me understand that this system is not OK. That’s why I decided to speak up now.”

Cain was a teen prodigy who set U.S. high school and junior records. She won the 2014 world junior title in the 3,000 meters. She joined the Oregon Project as a professional instead of competing collegiately.

Nike disbanded the Oregon Project last month after Salazar was found by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to have violated anti-doping rules. None of the violations were for doping athletes.

Salazar received a four-year ban from the sport. He has appealed the ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. A decision is expected in the spring of 2020.

-- Ken Goe

kgoe@oregonian.com | @KenGoe

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