Washington (AFP)

Nike announced Friday the end of the Oregon Project after last week's suspension of the flagship coach of this top-level athletics training group, American Alberto Salazar, for "inciting" doping.

"This situation, along with other unfounded allegations, is disrupting many athletes and preventing them from concentrating on their training and competitions," says US sports equipment giant CEO Mark Parker in an internal message to his teams. "So I made the decision to end the Oregon Project."

Several voices had risen to demand this closure, among which the American Kara Goucher, athlete of the group between 2004 and 2011, who had raised her voice against the practices of Salazar since 2013.

"If I were Nike, I would bring in new coaches and turn the page on this Oregon Project, because it is clear that its principles do not match those of clean sport and that we must start all over again," he said. Goucher who testified at the two arbitration hearings that led to the suspension of the sulphurous coach by the US anti-doping agency (Usada).

The boss of Nike continues to support the former coach of Mo Farah, four-time Olympic champion and six-time world champion (5,000 and 10,000 m), which he had supported the decision to appeal his suspension.

"A four-year suspension for someone who has acted in good faith is a bad decision," Parker said in his message a few days after the end of the Doha Worlds where Salazar athletes won three gold medals .

The comma brand (The Swoosh) is in turmoil after Alberto Salazar's four-year suspension for violating doping regulations and the release of a report by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) that Mr. Parker has been copied with e-mails informing him of the advanced research of the Nike Oregon Project (NOP), a project created in 2001 to revive the elite of long distance running in the United States.

Injections too important amino acids (which promote the burning of fat), experiments with testosterone, falsified medical documents ... the USADA has found, after a six-year investigation, a series of slippages of the former triple winner of the New York Marathon turned coach to success.

The Salazar affair continues to shake athletics. On Tuesday, the British federation announced the resignation of its national technical director, Neil Black, in office since 2012. In 2013, the same federation had entrusted a consultant position for his endurance program at Salazar, which Black had described as " genius ".

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