Win at All Costs audiobook

A look behind the scenes at The Nike Oregon Project, disgraced coach and running legend Alberto Salazar, and the rot in the richest company in running. While carefully researched and documented, and telling in many ways an all too familiar story, this reads as quick as a thriller or a jacked up runner. Read from an Advance Reader's Copy.

This is a meticulously researched and reported takedown of the vaunted Nike Oregon Project and its head coach, Shady Alberto Salazar, who last year was banned for four years for doping violations. The book chronicles the lengths he goes to to bend the banned substance rules...often outright breaking them. If you're a runner, this book will absolutely infuriate you. It's not just the doping -- it's the frequent emotional abuse and the crazy mind games he plays with his athletes, as well as the unproven, junk science he uses. Literally nothing is off limits to try to get an edge. Nike itself doesn't look great here either -- as Hart reveals the brand's almost cult-like corporate culture. Fascinating read. Maddening read. I run in Nikes. I may not run in Nikes anymore.

I "started" this book on October 24 but, after just finishing reading the Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, I needed something simple. From the prologue, Win At All Costs comes in blazing with names, testimonies, and rumors. I don't think I was equipped to deal with it so suddenly so I shelved it knowing I could pick it back up soon. Then this week I finished "Ascent 1980" which gave me the grounding needed after Electric Kool Aid Acid Test mushed my brain to a pulp. Refreshed, I picked back up Win At All Costs and finished the book in 2.5 days. I was gripped. I'd put this book in the same class as anything by Krakauer, a person who can take a topic you're not very interested in and suddenly captivate your imagination. While running is my favorite sport TO DO, I don't invest very much time or interest on running culture, especially track and field. The book is a gap-bridger. If you have basic knowledge about Adam Goucher's career (I finally read Running with The Buffaloes this year), Frank Shorter (his image is literally painted to a building I've passed by thousands of times in my life), Lance Armstrong, the company and culture of NIKE (a couple years ago I read the book "Swoosh" and Phil Knight's bio "Shoe Dog") then you have a foundation to connect the dots in Win At All Costs. For me this was a huge benefit. But Matt does what successful authors do best in this genre. He tracks fallible characters whose high stakes decisions create moral quandaries. While reading I was simulatensouly digging a rather deep rabbit hole I’d never ventured; all of the sudden I’m watching a video from 2007 of Alan Webb on the Letterman Show and listening to a Let’s Run podcast interview with the “big 3” (Ryan Hall, Webb, and Dathan Ritzenheim). A latent interest in track and field culture emerged. I haven’t mentioned bias or reporting integrity in this review because it’s a non starter. There are 353 (!) citations/notes. Matt is literally the person who broke the story about USADA’s investigation of the Nike Oregon Project. You are reading the work of a beat journalist’s longtime investigation.

Wow. The drama is so delicious. Excellent journalism writing. Like a thrilling race, this book takes you through the journey of cheating, sexism, manipulation and the toxic sport culture most present in no place other than... Nike.

Win at All Costs kept me on the edge of my seat. Masterfully researched and written in such a way that I thought that I might be reading a suspense novel. I learned a lot from this book about high level competitive running and even more about the human condition when our pursuit of glory has run amok. I encourage you to read this book. You will be glad that you did.

Congratulations on your first book, Matt. It was really well done! While I'm a long-time anti-Nike runner, I think your book came off as persuasive and balanced. Great writing and narrative.

A fascinating book which tears down the veil over the Nike Oregon Project and Alberto Salazar. Although essentially everyone in the running world had heard vague rumors, it was enlightening to read detailed reporting.Perhaps the most interesting part of this book was reading about Nike and how they defend Salazar and many other cheating athletes. It leaves me wondering whether sport would have been better off if Blue Ribbon Sports never made it off the ground back in the 1970s.A must read for people obsessed with running, or just people who love some good gossip.

Enthralling book about culture at Nike. Having read a few other books and articles (and listened to the Clean Sport Collective podcast), I knew a fair amount about the doping allegations, so a lot of the content wasn't 'new'. However, the author's writing style - and the quality of the research and storytelling made it a pretty interesting read.

Hart did a lot of research and interviews to attempt impartiality as he wrote about the Nike project scandal, but his book feels scattered and agenda driven. I finished the book depressed about the unhappiness that seems to abound in the world of world class running and the obsessions that drive ath

It is an interesting experience to read Shoe Dog first and then immediately followed by this book. Both were riveting and fascinating stories with differing recollections of the same events or incidents.

Wow wow wow. I absolutely DEVOURED this. I found myself pausing it to look more details up about the things that were being discussed in the book. I vaguely remember the BALCO stuff and all the doping accusations (and of course remember Lance Armstrong), but I didn't really pay attention to it.The drama and shit that went down is straight out of a movie, only it's real life. I feel bad for so many of these people. Some for what was done to them and others for what they did and became.

I am enraged.

BONKERS

This was certainly an eye-opener. There are many players in this book, but it centers on Kara Goucher and her husband, Adam who were the whistleblower on Nike and their coach, Alberto Salazar. Over many years in the Nike Oregon Project many of the runners were abused both verbally and physically with a variety of illegal drugs. Salazar always claiming his innocence and Nike backing him up was a sad realization.

ExcellentI could not put this book down. And excellent first book for this author. It is exceptionally well researched and written like a journalist should, without bias.

Professional sports live at the edge of legality (and more often than that, beyond) since forever, everybody knows that and everybody, at the end, accepts this; this book goes into the shady story of Alberi Salazar’s dodgy practices and the lives of many athletes involved with him. It is clear that the author had a plan to show those practices and amass proofs of his thesis, but this is not a trial, so one has always to take this information with caution.