Alberto Salazar, the Nike -backed coach who helped revive elite American distance running but was suspended for doping offenses and sharply criticized for his coaching methods, has been declared permanently ineligible by the U.S. Center for SafeSport.

The sanction, issued Monday, is related to “Sexual Misconduct; Emotional Misconduct,” according to SafeSport’s disciplinary database. It says the ruling is not yet final. Salazar has 10 business days to appeal by requesting arbitration.

The Center for SafeSport declined to comment. 

It isn’t clear what the specific allegations are against Salazar. Separately, he’s midway through a four-year suspension by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for engaging in prohibited doping conduct. He led the elite training group known as the Nike Oregon Project until its disbanding in October 2019 after his doping suspension. 

In a statement Monday, Nike said, “Alberto is no longer a contracted coach and we shuttered the Oregon project almost 2 years ago. Additionally, the SafeSport process is confidential by rule and we will not comment further.”

Salazar didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Early last year, SafeSport temporarily suspended Salazar in the wake of public reports from several women who ran for the Nike Oregon Project that he had pressured them to lose weight, sometimes with harmful health effects, and shamed them about their bodies.

Amy Yoder Begley, a former middle-distance runner with the group, tweeted that she was told she was too fat and “had the biggest butt on the starting line.” 

Mary Cain, a young prodigy coached by Salazar, said in a New York Times video that she had been “emotionally and physically abused” by a system designed by Salazar. She said she was pressured to lose weight and stopped menstruating for three years.

Salazar has previously said he had frank discussions with runners about the impact of weight on performance but disputed that he encouraged female athletes to maintain an unhealthy weight. He denied that any athlete suffered abuse or gender discrimination while running for the Nike Oregon Project. 

Salazar is appealing his four-year USADA suspension and a decision in that appeal, which is being handled by the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, is expected in August.

Alberto Salazar stands in front of Galen Rupp during the World Athletics Championships in Beijing in 2015.

Alberto Salazar stands in front of Galen Rupp during the World Athletics Championships in Beijing in 2015.

Photo: phil noble/Reuters

Salazar, an elite runner who won the New York City Marathon three times and the Boston Marathon once in the early 1980s, headed the Nike Oregon Project for nearly two decades. The selective training group was aimed at reviving U.S. distance running after years of lagging results at international races.

It largely succeeded in that aim. Galen Rupp, formerly a longtime Salazar pupil, won silver in the 10,000 meters at the 2012 London Games, bronze in the marathon at 2016 Rio and is the top U.S. men’s qualifier in the marathon at the Tokyo Games. Matthew Centrowitz, another former Nike Oregon Project runner, won the men’s 1500 meter gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics and is a contender in Tokyo.

Salazar’s doping suspension roiled distance running and Nike, where former chief executive Mark Parker had been briefed on Salazar’s experiments to manipulate the use of performance-enhancing drugs for track and field athletes. 

Parker announced weeks later, in late October 2019, that he would step down in 2020. At the time of the announcement, a Nike spokesman said the search for a new CEO had begun months earlier and wasn’t triggered by the Oregon Project issue. 

Write to Rachel Bachman at Rachel.Bachman@wsj.com