London--American sportswear giant Nike on Thursday reiterated its leading coach Alberto Salazar's refutation of doping allegations made in a BBC documentary.
"We take the allegations very seriously as Nike does not condone the use of performance-enhancing drugs in any manner," Nike said in a statement.
"Both Alberto and Galen (Rupp) have made their perspectives clear and fully refute the allegations made against them."
The documentary, broadcast on Wednesday, alleged that Salazar, 56, had encouraged athletes including America's Olympic 10,000 metres silver medallist Galen Rupp to use illegal substances.
Both Salazar, who runs Nike's Oregon Project training centre, and Rupp strongly deny all allegations of wrongdoing and none of the athletes from the project has ever failed a drug test.
Salazar also coaches British double Olympic champion Mo Farah, but there is no suggestion Farah broke doping rules and he said he had never taken banned substances or been encouraged to do so by Salazar.
However, European 10,000 metres champion Jo Pavey has told Farah, her Great Britain team-mate, that she would drop Salazar if she was in his position.
AFP
