I Was the Fastest Girl in America, Until I Joined Nike | NYT Opinion

I was the

fastest

girl

in America. “Mary Cain!” “Here there are women almost twice his age” “left in his wake.” I set many national records. And I was an outstanding student. "Come on, Mary Cain!" When I was 16 years old I received a call from Alberto Salazar from Nike. He was the most famous track coach in the world and he told me that I was the most talented athlete he had ever seen. During my freshman year of college, I moved to train with him and his team full-time at Nike World Headquarters. It was a team of the

fastest

athletes in the world.

And it was a dream come true. I

joined

Nike because I wanted to be the best female athlete of all time. Instead, I was emotionally and physically abused by a system designed by Alberto and supported by Nike. This is what happened to me. When I first arrived, the all-male Nike staff became convinced that to improve, I had to get thinner and thinner and thinner. This Nike team was the top running program in the country. And yet, we didn't have any certified sports psychologists. There was no certified nutritionist. In reality, they were just a group of people who were friends of Alberto.

So when I asked someone for help, they always told me the same thing. And that was listening to Alberto. Alberto constantly tried to make me lose weight. He created an arbitrary number of 114 pounds and would usually weigh me in front of my teammates and publicly shame me if he didn't make the weight. He wanted to give me birth control pills and diuretics to lose weight (the latter is not allowed in athletics). I ran terrible during this time. He got to a point where he was at the starting line and had lost the race before it started, because in my head the only thing I was thinking about was not the time I was trying to achieve, but the number on the scale I saw earlier. day.

It would be naive not to recognize that weight is important in sport. Like boxers need to maintain a certain weight, or you know everyone always ends up quoting math about how the thinner you are, the faster you're going to run because you have to carry less weight. But here's a biology lesson I learned the hard way. When young women are forced to push themselves beyond what they are capable of at their age, they are at risk of developing RED-S. Suddenly, you realize that you've missed your period for a couple of months. And then a couple of months turn into a couple of years.

And in my case, there were a total of three. And if you don't have your period, you won't be able to have the necessary levels of estrogen to maintain strong bone health. And in my case I broke five different bones. The New York Times Magazine published a story about how Alberto was training me and cultivating my talent. We weren't doing any of that. I felt so scared. I felt so alone. And I felt so trapped. And I started having suicidal thoughts. I started cutting myself. Some people saw me cutting myself and... I'm sorry. Nobody really did or said anything.

So in 2015 I ran this race and I didn't run very well. And then a storm broke out. Half of the track was under a tent. Alberto yelled at me in front of everyone else in the competition and told me that he had clearly gained five pounds before the race. It was also that night that I told Alberto and our sports psychologist that I was cutting myself. And they pretty much told me they just wanted to go to bed. And I think for me that was my kick in the head and I thought, "This system is sick." I think even for my parents in a way, once I finally spoke to them, I mean, they were horrified.

They bought me my first plane ride home. And they said, "Get on that flight." Get out of there. I wasn't even trying to get to the Olympics anymore. I was just trying to survive. So I made the painful decision and left the team. “After a multi-year investigation, the United States anti-doping agency banned Alberto Salazar from playing sports for four years.” "Nike to close Oregon project". “Nike CEO Mark Parker will leave the company in January 2020.” Those reforms are mostly a direct result of the doping scandal. They fail to acknowledge the fact that there is a systemic crisis in women's sports and at Nike, in which young

girl

s' bodies are being ruined by an emotionally and physically abusive system.

That's what needs to change and that's how we can do it. First, Nike needs to change. In athletics, Nike is all-powerful. They control the best coaches, athletes, races and even the governing body. You can't just fire a coach and eliminate a program and pretend the problem is solved. My concern is that Nike is simply going to rename the old program and put Alberto's former assistant coaches in charge. Secondly, we need more women in power. Part of me wonders if I had worked with more psychologists, nutritionists, and even trainers where I would be today. I was trapped in a system designed by and for men, which destroys the bodies of young girls.

Instead of forcing young women to fend for themselves, we need to protect them. I really have hope in the sport. And I plan to run for many more years. And part of the reason I'm doing this now is that I want to finish this chapter and start a new one.