Doping allegations against Alberto Salazar cast shadow over two of his elite American marathoners
Alberto Salazar’s legend was built on seemingly superhuman performances.
In the 1982 Boston Marathon, he battled Dick Beardsley stride for stride for more than two hours before outkicking him in a thrilling finish dubbed the “duel in the sun.’’ In 1978, he collapsed after finishing the Falmouth Road Race and was administered last rites when his temperature soared to 108. In 1994, after almost a decade’s absence from competition, he won the 56-mile Comrades Marathon, a punishing test of endurance across the hot hills of South Africa.
But now, some question whether Salazar’s quest to test the limits of human performance, which he began as a teenage track star at Wayland High School, may have crossed the line. American antidoping authorities are investigating allegations of performance-enhancing drug-use in Salazar’s vaunted training program, the Nike Oregon Project, which has entered two elite runners, Galen Rupp and Jordan Hasay, in Monday’s Boston Marathon.
