Opinion | Galen Rupp and His Opportunity to Capitalize on the Post-Salazar Era

By Chase Parnell — February 25, 2020 — 📸: How Lao

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In the arc of any great story, there are obstacles, conflicts, questions of identity, victories and mistakes. And really, these elements are all necessary to build tension and allow the reader, viewer or listener to become emotionally invested in the ultimate outcome of the tale. I may be in the minority here, but I feel like Galen has the ability, now that Alberto is essentially out of the picture, to right the ship and take ownership of his own personal narrative. It’ll take some work, it’ll likely mean making a financial sacrifice, and there will definitely be those who will never come back to him. But I have to imagine that Rupp wants a clean image and he doesn’t want an asterisk next to his name after working so hard to become one of the best American distance runners of all time. Because after all, what is all this running success worth if the people don’t also love you for it?

Alberto as Coach From the Very Beginning. 

In order for this turnaround to happen, as the fans, we have to recognize that in a lot of ways, Rupp was a victim of circumstance. Salazar had an iron grip on Galen’s career that left him between a rock and a hard place. Salazar groomed Galen for greatness from a very young age, plucking him off the Central Catholic high school soccer pitch in 2001 and then devotedly affirming his talents and gifts as he shepherded him to reach his full potential. Alberto invested so much energy, time, and emotion into Galen that it must have developed into a debt that Galen felt he couldn’t possibly repay. The only way he could get close was by staying loyal. 

Guilty by Association.

With the coaching relationship now severed, in some ways, Galen is free. But he didn’t escape unscathed. I’ll be the first to say that Galen is 100% guilty by association, there’s no way around it. Setting the U. S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) findings asides for now, the women that’ve come forward with complaints against Alberto are legion. It is simply unacceptable to associate yourself with someone who would so flippantly disparage women in that way. So if there was a culture of this type of behavior, at some point you can’t stand by your coach, regardless of how tethered your life and success have been to theirs. This is hard for me to write after just recently reading Alberto’s 14 Minutes book. Of course, in an autobiography, you get to tell your own story from your own perspective, so I acknowledge that it was invariably biased, but I left that book having a certain level of grace for Alberto. I really wanted him to be what he claimed: just a coach who was obsessed with winning and maximizing potential, riding that fine line, but staying in bounds. I honestly would’ve been fine with that. Winning is what he was getting paid to do and you wouldn’t expect anything less from a coach in any other professional sport. But when the allegations of all those women came out, I could no longer believe in the Alberto that he painted in his book. 

Amy Yoder Begley told the New York Times, “If I had a bad workout on a Tuesday, he would tell me I looked flabby and send me to get weighed. Then, three days later, I would have a great workout and he would say how lean I looked and tell me my husband was a lucky guy. I mean, really? My body changed in three days?” So not only was Alberto body shaming, he was sexualizing his athletes. In an article by BBC Panorama that just came out on February 24, 2020, Kara Goucher said that Alberto would say, “Stuff that no coach should ever be saying. It’s degrading. Specifically, for myself, after my son he was obsessed with the size of my breasts. And he would be talking about it openly in front of other people and making comments that were sexual in nature. It’s just inappropriate.”

Others, including Mary Cain, and Jackie Areson have come out with claims that Alberto became similarly obsessed with changing their bodies to improve performance. Now, if you’re Galen, and you’re hearing Alberto say these types of things, how long do you stay silent? There has to be a certain point where you decide if you want to be associated with that type of behavior. As a husband and father of girls, Rupp, if anything, should be uniquely sensitive to those types of comments. But again, Alberto built Galen’s career and the Nike Oregon Project (NOP) from the ground up and the team culture seemed to be that you don’t bite the hand that feeds you. 

So we have a history of abusive behaviors, sexualizing his female athletes, and body-shaming. Some of you might roll your eyes at that. You remember locker room culture, you don’t mind a little razzing about weight in elite sports; I think a lot of people feel that way. But then, Alberto is sanctioned with a four-year coaching ban when the “American Arbitration Association (AAA) panel found that Salazar … trafficked testosterone, a banned performance-enhancing substance, administered a prohibited IV infusion, and engaged in tampering to attempt to prevent relevant information about their conduct from being learned by USADA.” Now even if we give Rupp the benefit of the doubt that he himself didn’t partake in any of these banned activities, Rupp is fully aware of these findings, which spell out in detail the L-Carnitine infusions on Steve Magness and Alberto’s application of testosterone gel on his own kids. Read the decision here.

And now, as of February 24, we have Ari Lambie in a BBC article, who has been silent up to this point, say Alberto told her to take a special type of birth control pill to increase her blood volume and also sent her to Dr. Brown in Houston where he put her on thyroid medication despite there being no medical need for it. Even if these two actions don’t explicitly violate USADA rules, Alberto was clearly disregarding the health of his athletes by getting them to ingest medications that were not in their best interest, or worse, detrimental to their physical health.

As the evidence against Alberto continues to mount, I expect more and more of his past athletes to cut ties and speak out against their former coach. And if Galen wants to find himself on the right side of this, my belief is that he needs to come forward and disavow his allegiance to Alberto. At some point in life, the proverbial son needs to stand up to his father. The time is now for Galen. 

My History of Fandom

I’ve been a huge fan of Galen Rupp since his junior (my senior) year in high school when I watched him win the Oregon State Cross Country meet at Lane Community College in the fall of 2002. I’ll never forget watching him hit the track with 300 meters to go, with what must have been a 50 meter lead over Klamath Falls’ Lauren Jespersen, who earlier that spring won the state 1500 meter title in 3:50.49. At the time, Galen wasn’t known for his kick so he’d done what he needed to do on this day by building a big lead. Jespersen on the other hand had a legendary kick and he closed hard, but just barely ran out of real estate. The pair covered 5k in 14:56 and 14:57 with Galen taking the win. 

Fast forward a few years, while I was busy doing keg stands and playing Mario Kart 64 full-time at the University of Oregon, Galen went on to grow in fame and stature, collecting countless awards, championships, and collegiate records. I remember passing by Hayward Field on my way to classes, always peaking through the fence and sadly looking on at the sport I’d abandoned. Vin Lananna or Andy Powell were seemingly ever-present, stopwatch in hand, and the Oregon phenoms were there doing reps. Everyone knew that Alberto was pulling the strings on Galen’s training, shaping and molding, and creating a landing pad for Galen after college at Portland’s NOP.

Growing up in Eugene as I did, you realize early on that the distance running culture in Oregon is unique. Every kid coming up through the ranks knows about Prefontaine and his legacy. Before every high school state meet, our team would drive up to Pre’s Rock where he died, pay homage and try to draw some last minute inspiration from this hallowed spot. Pre grew up in Coos Bay and went to Marshfield High School on the Oregon Coast. Home grown, as was Rupp, who came out of the greater Portland area. Rupp quickly became the heir apparent, and surely would be the one to take up the mantle and bring greatness to Hayward and the Oregon distance running legacy once again. Sure, he didn’t have the mystique and rebel-yell of Pre, but he was great, and if you’re great and from Oregon, we love you. But what we’re learning now is that for even the rabid fans of Oregon, there’s a limit to what we’ll put up with. The only allegiance we hold higher than to the Men of Oregon is to the sport as a whole. We don’t want it destroyed like Lance destroyed cycling.  

Public Image Turn-Around

There’s no doubt that from the outside looking in, Galen’s public image has steadily declined year over year as the scandals have mounted. And he hasn’t really done anything about it. He’s been the consummate professional in a lot of ways, always offering the text book answers you’d expect. He’s stood by his coach and the process throughout it all, deflecting pointed questions, and further entrenching himself in this mess. We are dying for authenticity and boldness yet all we’ve been getting are the same smiles and shrugs. 

If there was a moment in time when I really started to wonder about Rupp as a person, it was at the press conference after the 2016 Olympic Trials, where all the Olympic qualifiers were on the panel fielding questions. Rupp stepped out of the room and the darling of marathoning, Meb Keflezighi, starts bashing on Rupp’s racing tactics, how Rupp was rubbing shoulders and kicking him like it was a 10k on the track. Amy Cragg and others were laughing at the comments and nodding their heads, like yup, that’s Rupp. Watch for yourself.

But really, are we surprised that Alberto’s top athlete turned into this cutthroat machine that would do anything to win? Anything to throw off and rattle his competitors like he did Meb? The informal rules of marathon etiquette aside, this video, for me, amplifies Rupp’s villain status and makes me wonder how he could possibly be content to remain in that position. The point of this article is to contend that he need not stay in that role. Nobody is beyond redemption. There’s a pathway out and I’m hoping he’s already starting to seize the opportunity. 

Hiring Mike Smith – A Step in the Right Direction. 

On January 10, 2020, Runner’s World reported that Galen Rupp joined forces with the head distance coach at Northern Arizona University, Mike Smith, who led his men’s team to two consecutive NCAA Cross Country National titles in 2017 and 2018 (also on staff for their 2016 title). He has emerged as one of the hottest coaches in the sport, so while it was a little out of left field that Galen contacted Smith out of the blue, it’s not surprising that Galen wanted to find the best coach out there. You can certainly craft that argument.

I want to think that hiring Smith was a good first step in the direction of leaving Nike altogether. Not that I dislike Nike running shoes (see header image) nor do I think Nike is evil. They are par for the course as far as publicly-traded behemoth corporations go and its worth remembering that the popularity of distance running would not be what it is today without the trail that Nike blazed and the financial contributions they’ve made for our sport. The Nike Bowerman team is phenomenal and I don’t hold anything against the likes of Shelby Houlihan, Courtney Frerichs, Evan Jager, Matt Centrowitz or any other Bowerman Track Club members. I am of the belief, however, that Galen’s connection to the fans cannot be resurrected without a wholesale fresh start and I don’t know if that could happen while remaining under the Nike flagship. And honestly, it’s only going to get worse when the book “Win At All Costs: Inside Nike Running and Its Culture of Deception” by Matt Hart comes out this August. What’s interesting with that title is that Hart seems to be roping in Nike generally, not just NOP. The clouds are accumulating.  

Mike Smith has no affiliation with Nike other than that he is now coaching a Nike athlete. I’m hoping Smith is taking on a mentoring role in addition to a coaching one. As time passes, might Galen consider uprooting from Portland altogether? Maybe move to Flagstaff to be close to Smith? Consider signing with another brand? The alternative is to ride this sucker out and hope it goes away, but when you look at how that strategy has played out for professional athletes in other sports, it never seems to end well. 

Not Giving Up On Rupp Just Yet. 

When I look at the arc of Galen’s career, he’s given us an incredible body of work. He’s been America’s greatest hope for a medal in many championship races on the men’s side. We’ve had a contender because of him. It’s unknowable how much Galen knew about the USADA violations or what he thought of the sexualization and verbal abuse of Goucher, Cain and others. I can empathize with him when I look at the the broader picture and how early on in his professional career, he owed a debt to Alberto that he couldn’t possibly repay. Stand up to Nike? Stand up to Alberto? That’s a big ask. But he’s not a kid anymore and he has the opening he needs. With a little more transparency and authenticity, a little more distancing from his past, and with a couple more years of ongoing domination on the roads, he could likely retire as arguably the greatest American distance runner of all time and, as a person, have a much more satisfying and wholesome image in his rearview mirror as he exits the competitive side of the sport. 

I don’t think I’ll ever forget Galen, in his black, gold and cardinal Central Catholic high school jersey, fighting tooth and nail to hold off Lauren Jespersen bearing down on him in those final meters of the 2002 Oregon High School State XC Championships. I’ll never forget his 10,000 meter Silver medal celebration alongside Mo Farah in the London Olympics. And I’ll always thoroughly respect what I view as his gutsiest performance when he outlasted the pack in the Olympic marathon in Rio; he suffered valiantly and hung tough to secure that bronze medal and cement his legacy as someone who shows up on the biggest stage. 

I put “Opinion” in the title of this post to make it clear that I say all these things while knowing that I don’t have all the facts. I wasn’t present when Alberto made those comments to those women and I wasn’t in the room during the USADA violations. I don’t know the complexities of Galen’s contracts, relationships, or how the Nike machine works, but what I do have is a voice from the perspective of a lifelong fan, that like many others, is teetering on the edge. I’m choosing to root for this second act of Galen Rupp. As fans, we’re bonded with Rupp because of all we’ve seen him accomplish, but we want transparency, we want honesty and authenticity, and we want him to come into his own. We’ve reached that now or never moment. 

Rupp’s story continues at the marathon Olympic Trials on Saturday, February 29, 2020. Despite the noise and all my conflicted personal reservations, at this point in time, I know that as I watch the coverage I’ll be standing alongside most Oregonians, still rooting for and holding out hope for Rupp. And as he did countless times at Hayward, we’ll be raising our hands to form an O as he breaks the tape. 

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