WADA urges Russian Federation to stop hacks

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.

While Froome, who was seen using an inhaler during the 2014 Criterium du Dauphine, said he was not concerned by the leak.

He said in a statement: “I’ve openly discussed my TUEs with the media and have no issues with the leak which confirms my statements”.

Froome was granted permission to take the banned steroid prednisolone on occasions between 2013 and 2014, including during the 2014 Tour of Romandy race.

“I want to say that we have no such information and we are also deeply concerned since the hacked documents could have also contained information on Russian athletes and it could be made public as well”.

Fancy Bear contends that TUEs are essentially “licenses for doping”, but nothing to this point has been revealed that implicates any of these athletes in any wrongdoing.

Following the attack, the Norwegian anti-doping agency today stated that they would, with immediate effect, stop using ADAMS for the treatment of TUEs because of the personal data involved, the Norwegian NADO said in a statement.

“How can you prove that the hackers are Russian?”

“We do not support what the hackers do, but what they did can not but be of interest to the worldwide community, and most of all to the sports community”, Putin said at a regional leaders summit in Central Asian Kyrgyzstan, Russian news agencies reported.

“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”, Director General Olivier Niggli said in a statement.

WADA considers the attacks are being carried out as retaliation for the agency’s investigations that exposed state-sponsored doping in Russian Federation and led to virtually the entire track and field team being banned from last month’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

“Not only does it undermine our work and the protection of clean sport, but it is grossly unfair to the athletes”, she said.

ITF President David Haggerty said on Wednesday that the global tennis federation was deeply concerned with the fact of illegal access to the database, which contained personal medical information of worldwide athletes.

Anti-doping United Kingdom stated that they are “appalled” by the leaks of personal data and stresses that “TUEs are granted based exclusively on medical need – they are not an indication of doping. They are there to support the clean athlete’s right to compete, despite a medical condition”.

Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko brushed aside suggestions of an orchestrated hacking campaign.

On the Fancy Bears website, which CNN can not confirm as legitimate, the hackers offered a message this week that said in part: “Greetings citizens of the world”.