The TUE’s of gymnast Simone Biles, tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams and women’s basketball forward Elena Delle Donne were disclosed in the hack.
Advertisement
The hackers accessed records detailing “Therapeutic Use Exemptions” (TUEs), which allow the use of banned substances due to athletes’ verified medical needs.
Reedie, who is also a senior member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said there was little doubt despite denials by the Russian government the hackers came from Russia.
“WADA has been informed by law enforcement authorities that these attacks are originating out of Russian Federation”, agency Director General Olivier Niggli said in the statement (via Ars).
Niggli said that WADA has been informed by law enforcement authorities that these attacks are originating out of Russian Federation.
Biles herself posted a statement on Twitter, explaining that she has taken medicine for ADHD since she was a child. The athletes all received therapeutic-use exemptions for the prescribed drugs they used.
Biles, who won four gold medals in the Rio Olympics, tested positive for methylphenidate in August, but she was not disqualified.
“Please know, I believe in 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”, she said.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg”, a statement posted to the Fancy Bears site said.
WADA’s database was accessed through an account created by the International Olympic Committee for the Rio games, WADA said. On Tuesday, the World Anti-Doping Agency didn’t provide any evidence to back up its allegations about the hack.
Russian Federation faced numerous accusations of state-sponsored doping violations in the lead-up to the Rio Olympics.
Tygart backed up the athletes, saying: “In each of the situations, the athlete has done everything right in adhering to the global rules for obtaining permission to use a needed medication”.
The World Anti-Doping Association’s (WADA) database has been under attack for weeks, its president Craig Reedie told the BBC on Wednesday.
Dr. Ashton said that in her medical opinion this kind of medication would not give an athlete an edge.
UKAD said today they were unclear whether hackers had obtained information relating to Britons and a spokesman said: “We’re working with WADA to ascertain if British athletes have been impacted”.
Advertisement
WADA believes that it was its involvement in that investigation which caused Russian hackers to attack its servers.
