Nike "was accused of hindering a doping investigation into the elite training group" run by Mo Farah’s coach, Alberto Salazar, according to Sean Ingle of the London GUARDIAN. The accusations against Nike were reportedly revealed in a "leaked United States Anti-Doping Agency interim report." German magazine Der Spiegel reported two of the Nike Oregon Project’s elite athletes and Farah’s training partners, Olympic marathon Bronze Medalist Galen Rupp and Olympic 1,500m champion Matthew Centrowitz, also submitted "samples that arose suspicion in the doping investigators." The latest allegations, based on a leaked USADA report from March '16, plus hundreds of emails, PDF files and Word documents obtained by the magazine from the Fancy Bears hacker group, "have been strongly denied by Nike and the athletes involved." According to the USADA report, Salazar has an "obsession with the testosterone levels of his athletes." However USADA "hit a brick wall when it asked the legendary endurance coach for all his notes, documents and emails" containing the words "testosterone," "Testoboost" or "Testo." He "apparently refused, saying they were on the Nike server and belonged to the company." Der Spiegel's report added that Nike, when approached by USADA, said that "although it was not averse to cooperating," it wanted to sign a "confidentiality agreement" which USADA reportedly considered "so restrictive" that its lawyer, William Bock, accused it of making "unreasonable demands" (GUARDIAN, 3/5).
