“It’s been hard, I’m not going to lie,” whispered the elfin figure of Galen Rupp in a voice so tender it could have melted in the 92-degree heat. A sweaty cat’s cradle of arms and Dictaphones strained to get closer, but only those nearest heard the pledge that will be broadcast repeatedly if the smoke swirling around Rupp and his coach Alberto Salazar erupts into fire. “I believe in clean sport and I believe the truth will prevail.”
Moments earlier, Rupp – a silver medallist at London 2012 and a training partner of Mo Farah – had found his feet to win his seventh consecutive US 10,000m championships. Finding his voice took longer. But nervously, hesitantly, he rediscovered it.
“The people here are so great,” he said, when asked about the standing ovation he received after crossing the line. “The support has been tremendous. I was obviously pleased to get another championship and to do it here in Eugene, it’s always special.”
This was Rupp’s first race since a BBC Panorama documentary accused him of stretching and snapping anti-doping rules. But back at Hayward Field, where he ran in college for Oregon, he was greeted as more of a homecoming hero than someone fighting to remove a stain against his name.
Not everyone was cheering. One coach, who did not want to be named, feared the allegations were “the tip of the iceberg” and said USA Track and Field had not done enough to investigate. Not that he was surprised. “Look around you at the billboards,” he said. “And ask yourself who sponsors this championship and Alberto?”
Along the back straight there was a ready answer: a Nike.com/running sign was stapled to a USA Track and Field one.
Earlier, while other athletes warmed up in the practice field or had their muscles shaken into life on one of 28 massage tables, Rupp limbered up in private. Only when the final call for registrations crackled through on the public address system did he trot over to Salazar for final instructions. He then crossed himself twice before hugging the man he sees as a second father.
As Rupp went to the start, Salazar spoke for the first time since being accused of giving Rupp testosterone as a 16-year-old. He insisted he was “feeling good” despite the allegations swimming around him and ruled out legal action against the BBC and the US news website ProPublica, adding: “I’m not a vindictive person.” Despite Salazar’s upbeat words, his face told a different story. It looked tired and withdrawn. Apparently his blood pressure has been through the roof, which is not good for someone whose determination to be the greatest distance athlete of his age – and arguably he was in the early 80s – has left him with health problems. Remember, too, that he was clinically dead for 14 minutes after suffering a heart attack in 2007.
But Salazar lives and breathes every race that Rupp enters and watching his friend from the corporate hospitality area proved a sprightly pick-me-up. There were shouts of lap splits and encouragement, including a happy cry of “Let’s go, Galen!” as his athlete powered clear to victory in the final kilometre.
It was an impressive performance, especially in conditions more like a steam room. But while Rupp was being photographed hugging his baby twins, the second-placed athlete, Ben True, was explaining why he had a very different ethos from his Nike Oregon Project rival.
“Allegations are allegations and rumours are rumours but I am very much against doping,” he said. “Use of therapeutic use exemptions, legal or not, are against the spirit of the sport. I don’t even take ibuprofen. I don’t drink recovery drinks. I have Gatorade maybe twice a year. I take acidophilus now and again and vitamin D in the winter. But I don’t even eat energy bars.”
Elsewhere on the first of four days at these US Trials, Dee Dee Trotter – the 400m bronze medallist at London 2012 and founder of Test Me I’m Clean, which promotes drug-free sport – called for a renewed push to stop people cheating or playing the system.
“I think drugs in the sport are devastating,” she said. “It’s a tragedy for the hardworking athletes like myself, I consider it to be similar to crime. When you cheat you’re taking something from the person behind you.”
When asked if sport was winning the fight, her answer brought to mind an unending tango between right and wrong, testers and cheats. “I think drugs in the sport are continuing,” she said. “You think we’re getting better then we take two steps forward and two steps back.”
Meanwhile, in the mixed zone interview area, Rupp had moved from the press scrum to the TV cameras and was repeating a familiar mantra. “I believe in clean sport and I believe the truth will prevail.”
