Why would Nike sponsor a cheat?
A doping scandal forces sport’s biggest brand to shut its top training camp.
Beyond Today · BBC Radio 4
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Show Notes
Nike spends a lot of money sponsoring and marketing some of the best athletes in the world. It doesn’t just back global superstars like Serena Williams and Cristiano Ronaldo on the field, but off them too. It made the American football player Colin Kaepernick as the face of an advertising campaign after he protested against racial injustice by kneeling during the US national anthem.
The events of the last few days don’t fit Nike’s preferred narrative. The firm has shut down the Oregon Project, its elite training programme, after the main coach there, Alberto Salazar, was found guilty of cheating by the US anti-doping agency. Nike says it doesn’t accept Salazar was deliberately cheating and is supporting his appeal against the ban.
Matthew Price hears from two people who’ve followed this story from the start. The BBC’s Mark Daly first exposed Salazar in a Panorama investigation four years ago. And Matt Lawton, the chief sports writer for The Times, has been inside Nike’s controversial Oregon Project.
Producers: Philly Beaumont and Duncan Barber Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Editor: John Shields