(ATR) A new round of revelations from Russian hackers discloses medical exemptions for 26 Olympians including Rafael Nadal, Mo Farah and Justin Rose.
The disclosure from the Fancy Bears hack team is the fourth made by the cyber attackers in the past week. Believed to be based in Russia, the fancybear.net website says it is releasing the confidential information to strike back at accusations of widespread doping by Russian athletes.
WADA says the hackers used phishing techniques to find a password to gain access to its Anti-Doping Administration and Management System known as ADAMS . WADA calls the attack criminal and says it is "taking this situation concerning athlete privacy very seriously".
The latest group of athletes named by the hackers includes Olympians from Argentina, Belgium, Burundi, Canada, Denmark, France, Britain, Hungary, Spain and the U.S. Sports include athletics, aquatics, cycling, fencing, field hockey, football, golf, gymnastics, handball, and tennis.
The information released today by Fancy Bear includes Therapeutic Use Exemptions for a range of medications prescribed by physicians and approved by the respective international federations.
While the Fancy Bear website says the TUEs expose how athletes win Olympic medals with the permission of WADA, none cover the Rio Olympics. In fact, of the 26 TUEs released today, only one was valid during an Olympics, one granted in 2012 for Nadal.
WADA indicates that none of the 60+ athletes who have been mentioned since last week in the hack by Fancy Bear are guilty of doping infractions. WADA says the use of the TUEs was proper and consistent with anti-doping regulations.
"It is very unfortunate that athletes’ TUEs are being debated publicly on the basis of partial, confidential, medical information. Athletes should not be required to publicly justify their TUEs. The program is a rigorous and necessary part of elite sport; and, it has overwhelming acceptance from athletes, physicians and all anti-doping stakeholders," WADA says in a release.
"Stay tuned for new leaks," warns the Fancy Bear website.
Written by Ed Hula.
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