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Cliona Foley on Mo Farah: "I can't believe the way it was covered on BBC"

Mick Foley and Cliona Foley joined Joe Molloy for Off the Ball's Sunday Paper Review to look back...



Cliona Foley on Mo Farah: "...
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Cliona Foley on Mo Farah: "I can't believe the way it was covered on BBC"

Mick Foley and Cliona Foley joined Joe Molloy for Off the Ball's Sunday Paper Review to look back at last week's main talking points.

The discussion turned to Mo Farah and the lack of analysis of certain elements of his training regime which has seen his rise to fame in the athletics' world.

He has won four Olympic gold medals and six world championship titles since he began working with American coach Alberto Salazar in 2011.

Cliona Foley picked out a piece by David Walsh saying: "Kara Goucher (American distance runner) was in Salazar's stable for quite a while and she has been very open about this.  She has told BBC before that he gave her Cytomel thyroid medication which is permissible only under a TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) and she didn't need it.

"And she has been very, very brave I think and strong on this. And actually, in the same area, Ewan MacKenna has a really, really excellent interview with Kara Goucher in the Sunday Business Post and it's well worth a read.

Great Britain's Mo Farah (right) celebrates winning the Men's 10,000m final with Silver Medalist USA's Galen Rupp (left) and coach Alberto Salazar in 2012. Picture by: Martin Rickett/PA Wire/PA Images

"This one by David Walsh, the title of it is 'The price of loyalty - standing by his tainted coach Alberto Salazar means Mo Farah is not quite the track icon he might be'" and I think everybody outside of the BBC athletics' team seems to accept that. 

"In that there's too many questions asked about Salazar's methods...his people (Farah's) literally stopped press interviews and they cherry-picked people to interview him during the week after his 10,000m win. That's just worrying on a basis of democracy and journalism - that's just worrying and I think it's a terrible thing to have. 

"Now, he (Walsh) does say that a missing drug test may be down to forgetfulness. The blood values that caused concern in 2015 may well be an anomaly explained by dehydration or some physiological factor. They prove nothing. Farah has passed every drug test and always insisted he races clean but there are of course other questions. 

"If you follow athletics like I do, Salazar's attitude, even his attitude at national championships, he has been very aggressive with people in the past and I can't believe the way it was covered by the BBC TV this week. I was really frustrated by it because I thought you can't possibly cover the Gatlin thing which I think has been completely overdone at this point and still not even mention (Farah) during it.

The full podcast is available here:

Cliona Foley on Mo Farah: "I can't believe the way it was covered on BBC"

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

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