“There is a long-established system of therapeutic use exemptions whereby an athlete who requires to take medicine that may be on the prohibited list can get an exemption to do so, provided it is certified properly by medical people and then certified by the relevant worldwide federation”, said Reedie.
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Spear phishing is when an email user receives a message purportedly from someone they know, but it is actually from a hacker. Their goal? To scrutinize American athletes and brand them as dopers the way that the Russians have been as of late. No, there is no state involvement.
Unknowingly, someone was already trying to crack passwords and other protected information.
The documents posted online say one of the athletes, multi-gold medal victor Biles, was found to have taken a drug commonly used to treat Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), among other conditions.
The International Olympic Committee said it “strongly condemns such methods which clearly aim at tarnishing the reputation of clean athletes”.
“The cyberbullying of innocent athletes being engaged in by these hackers is cowardly and despicable”, said Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
Venus Williams voiced dismay after Russian hackers who broke into the World Anti-Doping Agency database released details of her confidential medical records. “Please know, I believe in a clean sport, have always followed the rules, and will continue to do so as fair play is critical to sport and is very important to me”.
The Fancy Bears Hack Team publicized downloadable copies of records that was said to be from WADA’s Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS).
“WADA deeply regrets this situation and is very conscious of the threat that it represents to athletes whose confidential information has been divulged through this criminal act”, Olivier Niggli, the doping organization’s director general, said Tuesday.
USA Gymnastics has confirmed Simone Biles was given permission to use a banned substance at the Rio Olympic Games after the teenage sensation was among athletes whose medical data was obtained in a cyber-attack. “The IOC can confirm, however, that the athletes mentioned did not violate any anti-doping rules during the Olympic Games Rio 2016”. “We hacked World Anti-Doping Agency databases and we were shocked with what we saw”, the hackers have boasted on their website.
The group said that most of the drugs US athletes were found to be taking were legal when used for medical purposes, but it suggested this was proof of preferential treatment toward USA athletes by global sporting bodies. “We will also disclose exclusive information about other national Olympic teams later”.
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Stepanova, in hiding in North America, helped reveal the biggest state-backed doping program in Russian Federation and was forced to flee the country with her husband for fear of her life.
