By: Alice Dai
The news article “Can Galen Rupp outrun the shadow of a disgraced former coach?” discusses Galen Rupp’s latest activity in the Track and Field World Championships. In his native Oregon, he is considered a hero because he is one of the greatest distance runners of all time. His speed is incomparable to any other athlete. The article reports that: Rupp is “the fastest teenager anyone had ever seen, which is saying something in America’s unofficial running capital.”
An athlete named Weldon Johnson told everyone, “I think we should evaluate his career like everyone else but with more skepticism since one athlete is tied more closely to Alberto than anyone else and that is Galen Rupp.” This is an important speech because this proves that Galen Rupp is a fast runner, and every runner knows who he is. “Based on performance, he’s the greatest American male long-distance runner of his generation, since Steve Prefontaine probably.”
In 2019, a Rupp’s former coach, Alberto Salazar was banned for 4 years from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. On top of his illegal doping-related offenses, it was discovered that “In that same year, Salazar came under scrutiny after two female athletes he coached, Mary Cain and Amy Yoder Begley, said he publicly ridiculed and body-shamed them when they ran for the Oregon Project. Last year, an arbitrator for the U.S. Center for SafeSport ruled that it was ‘more likely than not’ that Salazar digitally penetrated one of his runners during a massage. The center, which is charged with investigating and ruling on such cases, barred him from the sport for life.”
Even if he had a lot of pain and troubles before, Rupp will never give up on running and being one of the top runners in the World Athletics Championships. “Rupp skipped the paydays he might have received for running one of the major spring marathons to focus on the once-in-a-career shot at winning a world championship marathon in his home state. The dents in his armor are chronic now. He told Runner’s World last month he has battled back pain for a year, and in the spring, doctors diagnosed a herniated disc and pinched nerve. He had Covid-19 last month.”