Alberto Salazar's Quotes

Alberto Salazar (born August 7, 1958) is an American former world-class long-distance runner and track coach, who was initially sanctioned for doping offenses. Born in Cuba, Salazar immigrated to the United States as a child with his family. They moved to Manchester, Connecticut, and then to Wayland, Massachusetts, where Salazar competed in track and field in high school. Salazar is best known for his performances in the New York City Marathon in the early 1980s and his 1982 Boston Marathon victory known as the “Duel in the Sun.” He held American track records of 13:11.93 for 5,000 m on July 6, 1982 in Stockholm, Sweden and 27:25.61 for 10,000 m on June 26, 1982 in Oslo, Norway.

Alberto Salazar's selected quotes:

Alberto Salazar about May:

We may train or peek for a certain race, but running is a lifetime sport.

Alberto Salazar about Freedom:

I've run a lot of miles over the years, some fast and some not so fast ...
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Alberto Salazar about Personality:

I can't tell you why a particular athlete would leave a certain coach, but I can ...
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Alberto Salazar about Change:

You have to change things in order to get to where you want to go. And ...
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Alberto Salazar about Believe:

The dynamic has really changed in the U.S. Americans believe they can be competitive, that they ...
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Alberto Salazar (born August 7, 1958) is an American former world-class long-distance runner and track coach, who was initially sanctioned for doping offenses. Born in Cuba, Salazar immigrated to the United States as a child behind his family. They moved to Manchester, Connecticut, and subsequently to Wayland, Massachusetts, where Salazar competed in track and arena in tall school. Salazar is best known for his performances in the New York City Marathon in the early 1980s and his 1982 Boston Marathon victory known as the “Duel in the Sun.” He held American track records of 13:11.93 for 5,000 m on July 6, 1982 in Stockholm, Sweden and 27:25.61 for 10,000 m on June 26, 1982 in Oslo, Norway.

Salazar was the head coach of the Nike Oregon Project in Portland, Oregon. He won the IAAF Coaching Achievement Award in 2013 during a ceremony hosted by the International Athletics Foundation in Monaco.

In June 2015, Salazar was named in a joint BBC Panorama and ProPublica chemical analysis into doping allegations.

In 2019 Salazar was banned for 4 years from athletics for doping offenses involving those athletes he coached. The Nike Oregon Project was shut beside in the wake of the controversy. In January 2020 he was placed upon the United States Center for SafeSport’s temporarily banned list.

His substitute ban was made unshakable after allegations of sexual and emotional misconduct had been investigated by the SafeSport organization.

All quotes from Alberto Salazar sorted alphabetically:

Alberto Salazar about Journey:

An athlete who tells you the training is always easy and always fun simply hasn't been there. Goals can be elusive which makes the difficult journey all the more rewarding.

Alberto Salazar about Training:

Early in my career I was accused of being overconfident and even cocky, but I really was confident that I had done the training and didn't see any other reason to say otherwise.

Alberto Salazar about Personality:

I can't tell you why a particular athlete would leave a certain coach, but I can tell you there could be many reasons. They could have personality conflicts. They could have misunderstandings. Lots of stuff can happen.

Alberto Salazar about Myself:

I didn't give myself enough breaks during the training year to recover. I didn't understand the power of periodization.

Alberto Salazar about Run:

I run four miles most days, at about 8:00 to 8:15 pace. It's totally relaxed.

Alberto Salazar about Goal:

If you want to achieve a high goal, you're going to have to take some chances.

Alberto Salazar about Daily:

I think in running, to be honest, that even though athletes are very dedicated and are willing to train and do whatever they need to do to prepare, more often than not they're not in a very professional environment where you've got a high performance director and a coach that are really monitoring your daily activities.

Alberto Salazar about Stress:

I'm doing great heart-wise. I get a complete stress test once a year, and those have gone well. I have stents in two arteries, and they are holding up. My other arteries haven't shown any additional clogging.

Alberto Salazar about Best:

I've found that my athletes run their best races after about 10 weeks of intense training.

Alberto Salazar about Future:

I'm interested in Dathan Ritzenhein's future in the marathon, and I believe that's where we need to address some issues he seems to have. He's had good marathon coaches - both Brad Hudson and me. He's figured out the fueling. He's got this incredible aerobic engine. But something's still wrong.

Alberto Salazar about Freedom:

I've run a lot of miles over the years, some fast and some not so fast. I've won some big races and I've had some big disappointments, but I enjoy the freedom of running and the challenge of training and competition as much now as when I first started back in high school.

Alberto Salazar about Day:

I've never enjoyed my running more. I also do 200 sit-ups a day, 60 push-ups, and a lot of stretching. I've had some back issues. I think the stretching helps with that.

Alberto Salazar about May:

We may train or peek for a certain race, but running is a lifetime sport.

Alberto Salazar about Trust:

Trust me, my runners aren't going to run one event while looking past it to the second event. When they get on the line for the 10K, that's a do-or-die situation for them.

Alberto Salazar about Believe:

The dynamic has really changed in the U.S. Americans believe they can be competitive, that they can win medals.

Alberto Salazar about Two:

With my runners now, they get two month-long breaks during the year.

Alberto Salazar about Winning:

Winning times in the New York City Marathon have not dropped all that much over the years, but rather U.S. runners went backward. In 1983, there were 267 U.S. men who broke 2:20 in a marathon, and by 2000 that number was down to 27.

Alberto Salazar about Change:

You have to change things in order to get to where you want to go. And things might get worse. But if you're not getting where you want to be, already, in a sense, it's as bad as it can get.