Cycling: The Russian hacker group 'Fancy Bear' hacked the World Doping Agency WADA and published internal documents and athlete reports. Christopher Froome and Bradley Wiggins were among the 'victims' of the hack. The reports show some quite interesting details, even if no explicit doping offenses are recorded.
So now WADA has got it: After hacker groups had repeatedly targeted companies and sports associations and clubs in recent years, it was the World Anti-Doping Agency's turn last night. The Russian hacker collective "Fancy Bear" published the internal reports on 25 athletes. Among them are the only two cyclists Bradley Wiggins and Christopher Froome.
The hack was officially confirmed in the morning by WADA, which indirectly verifies the published documents. 'Fancy Bear' apparently gained access to the data via a relatively new account that was created in the course of the 2016 Olympic Games. At WADA, it is assumed that the hackers were able to obtain the corresponding access data via targeted phishing mails - there are currently no indications of an intended transfer or a whistleblower, the statement continues.
Among the published documents are the so-called TUEs by Wiggins and Froome. TUE stands for Therapeutic Use Exemption – there are exemptions for certain preparations that actually fall under doping substances, but can be taken by athletes with a medical exemption. The list of TUEs in Froome's case is quite short: the multiple Tour de France winner took the anti-inflammatory drug prednisolone in 2013 and 2014 to relieve severe asthma flare-ups. In a statement this morning, Froome said he had no problem with the published data: “I have always dealt with these matters openly and honestly, including with the media. I have no problem with the leak, it just shows that I was telling the truth.”
In Bradley Wiggins' case, the list of exemptions is significantly longer, which is mainly due to his severe pollen allergy. In addition to salbutamol, which is used in the usual anti-allergy sprays, the reports also feature triamcinolone acetonide, which Wiggins used in 2011, 2012 and 2013 ahead of the Tour de France (2011 and 2012) and the Giro d'Italia (2013) was administered by syringe. It is also an anti-allergic and is intended to alleviate the hay fever symptoms of Brits.
No scandal, then: The published data rather show the meticulous documentation in the course of such exemptions and certainly help to ensure a little more transparency, also about the internal procedures at WADA and Co.
If you would like to view the (English-language) documents yourself, you can still do so on the hacker group's website: