Mo Farah’s former coach Alberto Salazar gets four-year doping ban from USADA

The man that trained four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah and a number of other top runners, has copped a massive doping ban after a long-running investigation by USADA.

(FILES) This file photo taken on August 21, 2016 shows gold medallist Britain's Mo Farah c

Track coach Alberto Salazar, who trained four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah and a number of other top runners, has been given a four-year ban by the US Anti- Doping Agency.

USADA said in a news release that Salazar and Jeffrey Brown were receiving four-year bans for, among other violations, possessing and trafficking testosterone while working at the Nike Oregon Project (NOP), where they trained top runners.

Brown was a paid consultant for the NOP and a physician for many of the runners. A four-year USADA investigation began after a BBC report detailing some of Salazar’s practices, which included infusions of a legal supplement called L-carnitine that is supposed to enhance performance.

Britain's Mo Farah celebrates near the podium for the Men's 5000m at the Rio 2016 Olympics

USADA chief executive officer Travis T Tygart said the athletes in these cases found the courage to speak out and ultimately exposed the truth.

“While acting in connection with the Nike Oregon Project, Mr Salazar and Dr Brown demonstrated that winning was more important than the health and wellbeing of the athletes they were sworn to protect.”

Brown was found to have tampered with records, administered an “over-limit” infusion and to have been complicit in Salazar’s trafficking of testosterone.

Salazar moved into coaching after a successful distance running career in which he thrice won the New York Marathon and claimed victory once in the Boston Marathon in the early 1980s.

Alberto Salazar gestures during a training session at the Olympic Stadium in advance of the Sainsbury's Anniversary Games, London, Britain Albeto Salazar

Originally published as Mo Farah’s former coach Alberto Salazar gets four-year doping ban from USADA