Share

Russian Hacking Group, Fancy Bears Releases more Olympian’s Medical Records

The list included British cyclists Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, Czech tennis player Petra Kvitova and German discus thrower, Robert Harting.

Advertisement

The 30-year-old, who was among the British men’s quartet who finished fifth in Rio last month, has had details of his drugs tests made public by the cyber espionage group “Fancy Bears”, which is believed to be from Russian Federation.

There is no suggestion the British athletes are involved in any wrongdoing, according to a BBC report.

Olympic gold medallists Robert Harting and Michelle Carter are among a list of 29 sportsmen and women to have had private medical data leaked by a hacking group calling itself “Fancy Bears” after a second data dump was carried out on Wednesday night.

Froome, among those whose medical record was leaked, defended his right to a therapeutic use exemption (TUE).

“Ive openly discussed my TUEs (therapeutic use exemptions) with the media and have no issues with the leak which confirms my statements, ” three-time Tour de France victor Chris Froome said.

Meanwhile Dr Jeroen Swart, the world renowned South African physiologist who conducted a range of tests on Chris Froome a year ago, told the Guardian that, while the renewed attention on the use – and potential misuse – of TUEs was welcome, there were other performance enhancement issues in sport that needed addressing.

“I’ve openly discussed my TUEs with the media and have no issues with the leak, which only confirms my statements”, he said.

Wiggins was given exemption to take a medication for an allergy to grass pollen, while Froome is known to have previously required medication for exacerbated asthma.

This time, WADA said the hackers released data of 25 athletes from the United States, Germany, Britain, Czech Republic, Denmark, Poland, Romania, and Russian Federation. “Healthy athletes legally take medications outlawed for others, while people, who obviously suffer from grave illnesses and disabilities, are barred from participation in Paralympic Games on sheer suspicion”, he said, referring to the ban on all Russian Paralympians in the Rio games this month, which was imposed after revelations of state-sponsored doping this summer.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has asked the Russian government to fight against hacker attacks, the doping agency’s director general Olivier Niggli has said.

Niggli said the hack on WADA’s computer system constituted “retaliation” against the agency, which imposed heavy penalties against Russian Federation over doping, including banning practically its entire athletics team from the Rio Olympics. The UCI has full confidence that WADA will do everything it can to prevent any further attacks and ensure ADAMS security.

His comments came just hours before hackers released a third batch of drugs test data involving 11 more athletes.

WADA has said it believes the hackers gained access to its anti-doping administration and management system (ADAMS) via an IOC-created account for the Rio Games.

“The athlete was also notified of this breach by UK Anti-Doping”, Votaw said.

“Not only does it undermine our work and the protection of clean sport, but it is grossly unfair to the athletes, whose personal data has been put at risk”, she said. TUEs could be a waiver for athletes to use an otherwise-prohibited substance for medical needs.

Kremlin immediately responded to WADA’s accusations, denying any Russian involvement in the hacking. The information of 25 athletes, from eight countries was leaked to the public.

Advertisement

United States Anti-Doping Agency chief executive Travis T. Tygart said: “It’s unthinkable that in the Olympic movement, hackers would illegally obtain confidential medical information in an attempt to smear athletes to make it look as if they have done something wrong”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin  AFP