 Alberto Salazar, the coach of Hasay and runner-up Shannon Rowbury, filed a protest which was overruled by the track referee, then a subsequent appeal of that decision was again dismissed.Grunewald's coach, Dennis Barker, stated that Nike staff and Salazar continued to apply pressure on the USATF officials, which resulted in the reopening of the appeal and the disqualification of Grunewald hours after the race (in contravention of USATF's own appeal rules).This provoked severe criticism from present athletes and coaches, as well as track and field journalists and fans on social media.