Portland's Best Family Feud Is Between Two Nike Coaches

Nike is like the family that has everything. The corporate giant has its own sprawling suburban campus (if you're into that), its own University of Oregon football team with fancy uniforms (if you're into that), and its own world-famous Swoosh plastered all over athletes (so famous you can't miss them even if you're not into that).

But they also have the best family feud around.

Nike track-and-field coaches Alberto Salazar and Jerry Schumacher will field at least 16 athletes at the Rio Olympics this August—including 2012 silver medalist Galen Rupp for Salazar and the Schumacher team's Evan Jager, perhaps the greatest American steeplechaser ever.

But while both coaches work for Nike to rebuild American long-distance running, Salazar and Schumacher's real rivalry is against each other.

Salazar recruited Schumacher to Nike, but the relationship went into an apparent tailspin—and Schumacher formed his own separate Nike team in 2010.

In a 2011 email obtained by The Wall Street Journal, Salazar called Schumacher and his assistant "our mortal enemies." At the U.S. indoor track championship in 2014, the two had to be physically separated, according to published accounts. Salazar, who is intensely competitive, accused Schumacher's athletes of conspiring to make his athlete finish (gasp) second.

The medal counts in Rio won't just be about which country can claim victory, but which Oregon coach is the winningest. Let the Games begin.

Willamette Week

Portland's Best Family Feud Is Between Two Nike Coaches

While both coaches work for Nike to rebuild American long-distance running, Alberto Salazar and Jerry Schumacher’s real rivalry is against each other.