Mary Cain Was A Running Prodigy, Until Abuse Derailed Her Career

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KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

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Summary

As a teenager Mary Cain was a running phenom. At 17, she ran the 800 in under two minutes, and broke numerous national high school records. She went pro that same year, to be coached by Alberto Salzar at Nike. But while Cain was winning accolades on the track, she was suffering deeply. In her new memoir, “This is Not About Running,” Cain, now a second year medical student at Stanford, recounts how Salazar and his team created a culture of abuse that ground down athletes like her. We talk to Cain about what lessons can be learned from her experience and her efforts to protect young athletes. Guests: Mary Cain, author, "This Is Not About Running;" former professional runner; second year medical student at Stanford Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:43.6	Welcome to Forum. I'm Grace Wan, in for Alexis Madrigal.
0:47.5	Our culture likes to valorize youth and prodigies, and this is particularly true in sports.
0:53.3	Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps,
0:56.1	all were teenagers when they broke onto the world stage, and all were celebrated for their talent
1:01.2	and their youth. How could someone so young be so good at a sport that people spend their whole
1:06.4	lives trying to get better at? Mary Kane knows something about being a prodigy, in this case as a runner.
1:12.7	In seventh grade, she was competing at States. As an eighth grader, she received a recruiting
1:16.6	letter from Brown University, and at 17, she was breaking national high school records.
1:21.6	She went pro that same year, primarily because Nike and its coach, the then-legendary Alberto
	...

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