The Nike Oregon Project

   A big craze taking the running community's attention is The Nike Oregon Project. Nike's Oregon Project is a group created by the athletic shoe company Nike, in 2001, to promote American long distance running. The athletes that partake in this program are of a high caliber, which can be attributed to their elite coaching, revolutionary training and use of air thinning technology. The runners live and train in Portland, Oregon near Nike's headquarters. Some of the runners in this group live in a specially designed house where filters are used to remove oxygen from the air to simulate that the athlete is living at high elevation. Numerous studies have shown that living at altitude causes the athlete to develop more red blood cells, increasing athletic performance. In addition to this, special software is used to monitor electrodes attached to the athletes, determining what condition they are in and how far or fast they can train. They use underwater and low-gravity treadmills. They also have a collaboration with Colorado Altitude Training (CAT) for their hypoxic training equipment.
   The project has gained great success at the International level at meets like The World Championships and the Olympics. The athletes in the project are Galen Rupp, Dathan Ritzenhein, Matthew Centrowitz, Mo Farah, and many other runners that live in the United States. Galen Rupp won silver in the 10000m in the London 2012 Olympics while Mo Farah got gold in both the 10000m and 5000m. Matt Centrowitz medaled in the 1500m at the Monoco World Championships in 2013. Dathan Ritzenhein is from Rockford, Michigan and has held many American records. The Oregon Project is coached by Alberto Salazar who won the NY Marathon three years in a row from 1980-82.
   The Oregon Project has taken a lot of criticism from National Agencies and other athletes. The WADA has accused the team of doping because of the air thinning houses but those allegations were dropped because of the natural effects of oxygen. They also received criticism because of the recruitment process of Galen Rupp. They were critcised by college track coaches for recruiting Galen Rupp directly out of high school to go live at the Oregon house and forgo attending University of Oregon for his first year.
   I personally love The Nike Oregon Project because it is putting American Distance running back on the world map. I support all of the runners and think it is great what Nike and Alberto Salazar has done with the team and athletes.