Fancy Bears leaked medical records of 25 Olympic athletes

U.K. Anti-Doping Chief Executive Nicole Sapstead warned on Thursday that 48 more British athletes who competed at the Rio Games have had their medical files stolen, in addition to the five already named, stating she was “incredibly concerned and disappointed” by the leaks.

Rio Olympic rowing champion Kim Brennan is one of three Australian athletes to have confidential medical data published by the Russian cyber espionage group the Fancy Bears.

The records largely detail instances of athletes’ Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs), which allow them to take substances that would be banned if they did not have a legitimate medical need.

The medical records of the Rio gold medallists, plus those of silver medal-winning swimmer Siobhan-Marie O’Connor and rower Olivia Carnegie-Brown, were published on the website of the “Fancy Bears” group.

There is no suggestion that the athletes involved have committed any wrongdoing. We have also been in contact with the four most recently affected athletes this evening and have offered our support.

“That is a huge security concern and something that I think we should be seriously anxious about”.

However, the leaking of their records has re-opened the debate about TUEs and in particular whether the system is open to abuse from competitors gaining a performance advantage by taking banned drugs when they are not suffering from a relevant medical condition.

The hackers claim to be exposing athletes receiving questionable drug exemptions from WADA, but in Brennan’s case, this could not be further from the truth. “But there should be some public trust for this system, and in athletics it is particularly robust”. Such exemptions do not constitute doping’.

“With this in mind, stakeholders should know that WADA is being consulted and taking action based on intelligence and advice from the very highest levels of worldwide law enforcement; along with, top cyber security experts to ensure that the broader ADAMS remains secure”, WADA said in a statement on Friday.

Born a month premature with a collapsed lung, Trott suffered protracted chest infections from an early age and was diagnosed with asthma at the age of six.

Rowing Australia identified rower Alex Belonogoff as another athlete targeted by the leaks.

The 33-year-old Adams has had TUEs for salbutamol, salmeterol and fluticasone propionate, all of which are used in the treatment of asthma. His compatriot Rose also at the Rio Games won the first gold medal in golf for 112 years.

Russian teams were all banned from the Paralympic Games now being staged in Rio, and Putin’s nation was criticized by Bach’s counterpart, Philip Craven of Britain, for a “medals over morality” attitude.

He said this was his only TUE at a press conference in Birmingham last June when asked about his coach Alberto Salazar, who remains under investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, but it has since emerged that he did mention the 2008 triamcinolone injection a few weeks later in an interview with Sky Sports News.