British athletes hit by latest hacked data dump

More athlete confidential files have been released by the hackers responsible for cracking into the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) servers and stealing away medical records. Although it appeared that the hack at first targeted U.S. athletes exclusively, now they've released files on several British Olympians too.

It appears now that the hackers are looking to broadly discredit WADA and draw links between it and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), by highlighting some of the therapeutic usage exceptions, which allow athletes to use banned substances if they get permission first. The group claims that they are essentially a ‘license for doping.'

In its latest dump, the hacking group highlighted two British athletes who had these sorts of exemptions for mild steroids. In one case it was said to combat pollen during the Tour de France and in another, to help deal with asthma (thanks BBC). While we won't name them here, neither athletes has commented on these revelations.

Why Would Jesus Dope? Source: VectorStock

While there are no demands from the hackers, the fact that they are making headlines is enough to help their cause. The fact that they are so publicly naming athletes with therapeutic usage exceptions will certainly cause debate about the subject. Even if most athletes are using the system legitimately, are there any with too cosy a relationship with WADA officials? Is it all above board?

Regardless of the aims or results of the hackers though, WADA remains convinced that they are Russian in origin. Wada Director General Olivier Niggli, said in a statement that this was a deliberate “criminal attack,” against WADA and the Olympic athletes, calling it revenge for the scrutiny Russian sportsmen and women went under as part of an investigation into a state-level doping scandal.

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KitGuru Says: It seems so hard to imagine that steroids and other performance enhancing drugs aren't at least partly to play any time a new world record is set. So many of the world's best have been caught over the years. 

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