Double Olympic champ Farah adamant he is ‘100 percent clean’
What you need to know:
- Farah has not been accused of wrongdoing but the winner of the 5,000 and 10,000 metres at the 2012 London Olympics feels his name is being tarnished by association
LONDON
Britain’s double Olympic champion Mo Farah reiterated yesterday he was “100 percent clean” as doping allegations continued to swirl around coach Alberto Salazar.
Significantly, Farah has not been accused of wrongdoing but the winner of the 5,000 and 10,000 metres at the 2012 London Olympics feels his name is being tarnished by association and he again said yesterday he would stop working with Salazar were the allegations upheld.
“I am not on anything, trust me,” Farah told Sky Sports News.
“To be labelled something you are not and labelled a cheat is not fair: prove I am a cheat or leave me alone.
“Let’s get to the bottom of this. It is killing me, killing my family,” he added. Last month, a BBC/ProPublica documentary alleged that former New York Marathon champion Salazar, a 56-year-old Cuban-born American, violated anti-doping rules by administering testosterone to American distance runner Galen Rupp in 2002 when Rupp — a training partner of Farah - was only 16, and encouraging misuse of prescription drugs.
Last week, Salazar published a lengthy open letter refuting the allegations against him but Kara Goucher, one of the athletes who has accused her former coach of breaking ant-doping rules, was unimpressed.
Salazar portrayed her husband, former athlete Adam Goucher, as “belligerent” and said he dismissed the couple from his Nike Oregon Project training group.
“I understand that if you read it through it looks like I’m a liar,” Kara Goucher said. “I don’t like being labelled a liar, just like anyone else.
“I want people to like me but my love for the sport is much stronger than my passion to have people like me.”
