Jo Pavey has responded to the allegations put forward against Alberto Salazar that he has violated anti-doping rules, telling the BBC that she would not associate herself the 56-year-old athletics coach. She said:
“As an athlete, you don’t want to associate yourself with people that have got accusations and allegations against them.
“I’m not here to accuse anyone, but if there was anybody I was slightly associated with that I suddenly realised had these accusations against them – or any of my training partners – I’d run a mile.”
Pavey told reporters that scandals like this one need to happen to support the future of sport. The 41-year-old European Championship gold medalist said that she herself had lost medals to cheating coaches:
“I feel personally that I’ve lost a lot of medals through people not only rumoured to be cheating but actually have been caught and that’s been a big frustration in my career.
I want to put a positive message out there about the sport, I’ve had a great lifestyle out of it. I just want these things to be addressed so we can have a bright future for our youngsters coming into the sport.”
