Legendary Nike Oregon Project coach Alberto Salazar has admitted to injecting runners with L-carnitine, a potentially performance-enhancing supplement, . The revelation has sparked controversy in the running community, though the injections were likely legal.
Critics have focused on Salazar’s apparently contradictory stance on supplements.聽In 2013, to accusations that Mo Farah, an Olympic, world, and European champion in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters聽was doping, Salazar聽聽that 鈥渘one of our athletes are on any sports-specific supplement other than beta-alanine, which is an amino acid. Other than that, it鈥檚 iron, vitamin D, and that鈥檚 it. You don鈥檛 really need anything else.鈥
The Nike Oregon Project is an elite squad of distance runners that includes Farah and Galen Rupp, Olympic silver medalist in the 10,000 meters. The Sunday Times claims that both of those runners received injections of L-carnitine as far back as 2011, as did celebrated University of Houston coach Steve Magness.
聽helps the body turn fat into energy. It鈥檚 normally made in the liver and kidneys and stored in the muscles, heart, and brain. Although there鈥檚 dueling evidence as to whether the substance actually boosts performance, according to LetsRun.com, Magness鈥 performance when he took L-carnitine intravenously.
Taking the supplement orally is legal under World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules. It鈥檚 also fair game to inject legal substances as long as athletes take in less than 1.6 ounces in a six-hour period.