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 The agency is seeking documents and interviewing witnesses, the
person, who is familiar with the investigation, said.
The probe has been ongoing and began before the BBC television
programme Panorama in association with American website ProPublica
made a series of allegations, the source said.
The allegations included that Salazar had given Olympic 10,000
metres silver medallist Galen Rupp the banned anabolic steroid
testosterone.
Rupp is the training partner of British double Olympic champion Mo
Farah, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Salazar issued a lengthy and detailed denial of the allegations on
Wednesday.
USADA would not comment on whether an investigation was taking
place.
"USADA takes all reports of doping seriously and we aggressively
follow up on all information we receive in order to fulfil our oath
to protect clean athletes and the integrity of competition," it said
in a statement.
The Cuban-born Salazar, who has worked as a consultant to British
Athletics for two years, wrote in an open letter published on
Wednesday: "I believe in a clean sport and hard work and so do my
athletes.
"I will never permit doping. At no time do we use science in
violation of the WADA Code. We strictly adhere to competition and
anti-doping rules at all times.
"I have not and will not condone any athlete I train using a banned
substance and would never encourage any athlete to use a banned
substance."
Briton Farah, 32, won the 5,000 and 10,000 metres double at the 2012
London Olympics. American Rupp, 29, took the silver medal in the
10,000.
Rupp, the American record holder at 10,000 metres and six-times
national champion, plans to defend his title at the U.S. world
championships trials in Eugene, Oregon, on Thursday.
He has denied ever doping.
INTERNAL REVIEW
British Athletics said the content of Salazar's statement would be
referred to their performance oversight group for consideration in
their ongoing internal review into the relationship between Salazar
and Farah.
[to top of second column] |
In his point-by-point response Salazar criticised the BBC and
ProPublica, however Stephen Engelberg, editor in chief of ProPublica
said: "Mr. Salazar's statement confirms some details of our story,
and purports to contradict other things that were not actually in
the story.
"We will soon be detailing this, but can say now that we see nothing
in the statement that would merit a correction."
Among the allegations levelled at Salazar was that he had coached
Rupp and other athletes on ways to manipulate therapeutic use
exemptions (TUEs), in which athletes can use otherwise banned
medications or treatments for medical reasons.
Salazar defended Rupp and said he had been treated for many years
for asthma and Hashimoto's disease, a thyroid disorder, but under
medical supervision.
"Galen takes asthma medication so he can breathe normally --not so
he can run better," he said.
Using statistics to back up his claims, he stated: "I do not push my
athletes to take prescription medicine that is not needed as alleged
in the BBC/ProPublica stories.
"Again, the BBC/ProPublica writers did not want the facts to get in
the way of their stories..."
The IAAF said it "is very comfortable with the current policy on
TUEs -- but this does not mean that in future there may not be
changes."
(Writing by Ken Ferris and Toby Davis, editing by Martyn Herman)
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