ABOUT SIX YEARS AGO, an op-ed appeared in the New York Times entitled “I Was the Fastest Girl in America, Until I Joined Nike.” It was by Mary Cain and it was a bombshell. Mary was not entirely happy with that piece and this book is her attempt to tell the whole story. It is a bleak, compelling read. It will make you sad, angry, even outraged, but I think every track fan should read it. I particularly like the way the book is structured: 139 2-3-page “chapters” told in the present tense, make it immediate and readable.
Anyone who follows the sport knows — to put it harshly — that the track & field landscape is littered with prep phenoms who were not terribly successful in the sport after high school. Mary Cain was so promising, however, that Alberto Salazar, at the time perhaps the most famous and successful track coach in the country, didn’t hesitate to invite her, a teenager, to train with him and the Nike Oregon Project team. The invitation came just at the right — or wrong, as it turned out — time for the young athlete.
Bronxville, NY, is an upscale community north of New York City and Mary’s time with the Bronxville HS team was not a happy time. Despite her amazing early running success and the honors she helped the team win, the older girls on the team shunned and bullied her, and some of their parents were even worse. And the coach did nothing to stop the abuse. So by the time Salazar’s invitation came, she had left the team, and it seemed like a wonderful opportunity — even if she had to spend a lot of time across the country as a 16-year-old, far from family and friends.
So, what could go wrong? One of America’s best coaches, with full financial support from one of the world’s richest shoe companies — that will certainly guarantee continued improvement, success and Olympic stardom. Right?
Well, as you know, it didn’t quite work out like that. For Mary or for Alberto. After a year or so of continued success, injuries and her supposed weight increase become problems for her and for Salazar. She tries but cannot lose sufficient weight to please him and his coaching team. She has trouble completing his workouts, often breaking down in tears. Salazar’s support team includes a psychologist who is not really a psychologist, and a doctor who tells her to run through her shin splints that were really stress fractures.
Alberto becomes angry and then distant. Mary becomes distraught at losing Alberto’s favor and approval and eventually, understandably, has a mental breakdown. She cuts herself and has suicidal thoughts. Imagine your 18-year-old daughter/niece/neighbor in this situation. Heartbreaking, with no sympathy or help from the adults who are supposed to be your mentors and guides.
One can’t help wondering how this would have turned out if Mary had taken the other fork in the road — gone to a good college with a good track program, but we’ll never know. Mary is now seemingly in a good place, at Stanford med school, hoping to become a doctor like her father.
I recommend the book to everyone who remembers Mary Cain and that bright running career she might have had if she hadn’t accepted that fateful invitation. Salazar of course has fallen — hard — from grace. Fortunately, he is no longer training young girls, and we are left to wonder “what if.”
The book is scheduled for publication in April by HarperCollins/Mariner Press.
