WADA also repeated its belief the attacks are being carried out as retaliation for the agency’s investigations that exposed state-sponsored doping in Russian Federation.
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Thursday’s records included 10 US athletes, five British athletes-including the victor of the Tour de France, Chris Froome-and competitors from six other countries, including one from Russian Federation.
“We condemn this criminal activity and have asked the Russian Government to do everything in their power to make it stop”, WADA director general Olivier Niggli said.
“I’ve openly discussed my TUEs with the media and have no issues with the leak, which only confirms my statements”, he said.
Russian to English translation services were not needed to uncover what Fancy Bear stated on its website: “This is just the tip of the iceberg”.
Bach said the International Olympic Committee will help WADA, “including communicating with the Russian authorities, to underline the seriousness of the issue and request all possible assistance to stop the hackers”.
WADA has said in a statement that the cyber attacks were an attempt to undermine the global anti-doping system.
“There’s nothing new here”, a statement issued on behalf of Wiggins said.
The details show which athletes were allowed to take otherwise banned substances for medical reasons.
“Similar to the leak that the Agency announced on 13 September, this time the group released the confidential athlete data of 25 athletes, from eight countries, into the public domain”.
The attack comes only a month after Yuliya Stepanova’s WADA database password was stolen and her account illegally accessed.
“The cyberbullying of innocent athletes being engaged in by these hackers is cowardly and despicable”, said Travis Tygart, CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency. Russian officials and athletes likened the move to Cold War era conflicts.
“How can one possibly prove that the hackers were from Russian Federation?”
WADA needs to “develop clear criteria for its work that everyone understands, based on worldwide law, and not on some very unusual statements”, she said.
Hull, 20, has been open about her condition, which forced her to withdraw from a UL International Crown match earlier this year, telling Golf Channel that her asthma had worsened since switching to a steroid-free inhalant in order to comply with international anti-doping standards in advance of golf’s return to the Olympics at the 2016 Games in Rio. Their chosen name, “Fancy Bears”, appears to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to a collection of Russia-linked hackers that security researchers have blamed for a recent spate of attacks and which WADA holds responsible for the current breach.
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The latest leaks suggest that Rio gold medallist Wiggins, who has never made any secret of the fact he suffers from asthma, has several TUEs for salbutamol, a substance commonly used in an inhaler.
