Leading American athletes have hit back at the release of their medical records late Tuesday, after a Russian cyber espionage group hacked a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) database at the Rio Olympics.
The group accessed confidential data from athletes such as tennis’ Williams sisters and gold medal-winning US gymnast Simone Biles, before releasing it on their website.
Biles said on Twitter she had ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and has been taking medication since she was a child.
“Having ADHD, and taking medicine for it is nothing to be ashamed of, nothing that I’m afraid to let people know,” she said.
“Please know, I believe in clean sport, have always followed the rules, and will continue to do so as fair play is critical to sport and is very important to me.”
The leaked information included medical exemptions which allow athletes to use normally forbidden substances — for example ADHD medicine.
“I was disappointed to learn today that my private, medical data has been compromised by hackers and published without my permission,” Venus Williams said in a statement.
“I have followed the rules established under the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme in applying for, and being granted, ‘therapeutic use exemptions.’”
“I am one of the strongest supporters of maintaining the highest level of integrity in competitive sport and I have been highly disciplined in following the guidelines set,” Williams added.
US basketball star Elena Delle Donne, another gold medallist from Rio, took to social media to post a picture of her recovery from thumb surgery and added a note relating to the hacking news.
“I’d like to thank the hackers for making the world aware that I legally take a prescription for a condition I’ve been diagnosed with, which WADA granted me an exemption for,” she said. “Thanks, guys!”
WADA confirmed that a Russian cyber espionage group operator by the name of Tsar Team, also known as Fancy Bear, “illegally gained access” to WADA’s Anti-Doping database via an International Olympic Committee-created account.
The hacker group pledged allegiance to the Anonymous Internet activist hacker group, saying “we stand for fair play and clean sport” and “we are going to tell you how Olympic medals are won”.
WADA said access was likely obtained by gaining possession of passwords through phishing of e-mail accounts.
“WADA has been informed by law enforcement authorities that these attacks are originating out of Russia,” WADA director general Olivier Niggli said.
“Let it be known that these criminal acts are greatly compromising the effort by the global anti-doping community to re-establish trust in Russia further to the outcomes of the Agency’s independent McLaren Investigation Report.”
Looking at the latest attack, Niggli said: “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.”
WADA said it now planned to get in contact with the International Olympic Committee, international sports federations and national anti-doping organisations regarding the specific athletes affected.