AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
- Distance runner Mary Cain is suing Nike and her former coach, Alberto Salazar, for $20 million.
- She has accused Salazar of emotionally abusing her while she trained at the Nike Oregon Project.
- She also alleges that Nike failed to intervene.
Distance runner Mary Cain is suing Nike and her former coach, Alberto Salazar, for $20 million over the abuse she claims she faced while training at the now-shuttered Nike Oregon Project.
Cain, now 25, filed the lawsuit on Monday in Oregon's Multnomah County, alleging that Salazar emotionally abused her starting in 2012, when she joined the Nike Oregon Project at 16 years old. She also accused Nike of failing to intervene.
"I joined Nike because I wanted to be the best female athlete ever. Instead, I was emotionally and physically abused by a system designed by Alberto and endorsed by Nike," she told The Oregonian about her lawsuit.
Cain first spoke out about the abuse she says she faced in the Nike Oregon Project in an op-ed video published by the New York Times in 2019.
At the time, she claimed her male coaches, including Salazar, were so focused on her losing weight that she broke multiple bones and stopped having her period for three years.
Salazar told Sports Illustrated in 2019 that he "may have made comments that were callous or insensitive" but pushed back on Cain's claims that he was abusive.
"If any athlete was hurt by any comments that I have made, such an effect was entirely unintended, and I am sorry," he said in a statement. "I do dispute, however, the notion that any athlete suffered any abuse or gender discrimination while running for the Oregon Project."
Nike told Insider that it would not comment on Cain's lawsuit due to ongoing litigation.
"Nike is committed to positively affecting the future of sport for women and girls and we are doing more in this space than ever before," the company said.
Cain's lawyer did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.