Alberto Salazar has been banned from coaching for four years beginning immediately

Alberto Salazar, Nike Oregon Project coach and a Houston endocrinologist who had treated athletes belonging to the Portland-based training group, have been banned for four years for doping violations.

The decision was announced Tuesday by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and begins immediately. It is the result of a four-year investigation.

In a prepared statement, the USADA wrote that two, three-member arbitration panels had determined Salazar and Dr Jeffrey Brown should be banned for “orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct.”

Salazar was found to have given athletes a substance in excess of its permitted limit, tampered or attempted to tamper with the doping control process of Oregon Project athletes, and trafficked in or attempted to traffic in testosterone, a banned steroid.

The British Broadcasting Corporation first reported the story.

Salazar is believed to be in Doha, Qatar, where a number of Oregon Project athletes are competing in the World Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Dutch distance runner Sifan Hassan of the Oregon Project won the world outdoor title in the women’s 5,000 meters won the women’s 10,000 title on Saturday.

A former University of Oregon track star, Salazar has had a storied coaching career, guiding Olympic gold medalists Mo Farah and Matthew Centrowitz, as well as two-time Olympic medalist Galen Rupp.

Centrowitz and Farah left the Oregon Project before the ban was announced, Farah in 2017 and Centrowitz last year.

Salazar repeatedly has denied the charges.

posted Monday September 30th