The tit-for-tat war is upon us. When Russian track and field athletes were banned from the Olympic games following startling revelations of a state sponsored doping programme, it was a given repercussions from the East would soon follow. And so it proved.
Last week’s announcement that cyber terrorist group Fancy Bears had hacked the database of the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) and obtained medical records, were greeted with anger, shock and dismay. Naturally, considering the political landscape, American athletes were in the crosshairs.
Simone Biles and the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, were the stand-out victims. It was revealed they had successfully applied for therapeutic use exemption (TUEs), which allows athletes with particular medical conditions to take substances otherwise on WADA’s banned list.
Hundreds of sportsmen and women are granted them every year.
Between January 2015 and March 2016 over 150 British athletes were given the green light, but not before going through a rigorous interview process and consultations with three sports science experts.
US authorities stressed both Williams sisters and Biles did everything by the book. American basketball player Elena Delle Donne also had her details hacked.
“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. Thanks, guys!” she tweeted.
But any affront to American security will always be taken with the upmost seriousness and this was no different.
The New York Times, the most respected newspaper in the United States, devoted extensive coverage as did TV news channel CNN, while the Washington Post didn’t hold back.
“The recent spate of embarrassing emails and other records stolen by Russian hackers is President Vladimir Putin’s splashy response to years of what he sees as U.S. efforts to weaken and shame him on the world stage and with his own people, according to Russia experts here and in the U.S. intelligence world and academia,” the paper wrote.
Fancy Bears’ findings haven’t created a Lance Armstrong kind of seismic shock. The use of TUEs, however, is a largely grey area which WADA need to look at.
Critics of the system maintain some athletes are given TUEs despite not needing them, therefore giving them the ability to use various drugs or medications to help boost performance.
For example, corticosteroids are widely used and can help people breathe better yet also enhance their endurance and overall performance. It’s interesting how many are claimed to suffer from asthma.
Others have urged the governing bodies to abolish the presentation of TUEs all together. There have been questions asked as to why Serena needed to take powerful drugs like prednisolone and methylprednisolone.
The International Tennis Federation’s insistence that such medications are for ‘therapeutic use’ understandably doesn’t wash with everyone even if the drugs are used to treat regular muscle problems.
Russians, clearly stung by their Olympic and Paralympic ejections, have needed little encouragement to keep the pot boiling. There have been denials from within the Kremlin that this was indeed work ordered by Putin, who described the revelations as “interesting”.
State news agency, RIA Novosti, reverted to type. Their headline grossly missed the point and was inflammatory to the extreme.
TUE history released: Bradley Wiggins.
Accompanied by a disgraceful cartoon of a USA shirt-wearing, black tennis player holding a trophy full of pills, they insisted ‘WADA allowed the Williams sisters and Biles to take doping’.
The United States Anti-Doping agency reacted strongly and defended the likes of Biles.
“They want to smear athletes to make it look as if they have done something wrong,” said USADA chief Travis T. Tygart.
“The athletes haven’t. In fact, in each of the situations, the athlete has done everything right in adhering to the global rules for obtaining permission to use a needed medication. The cyber bullying of innocent athletes being engaged in by these hackers is cowardly and despicable.”
A sporting cold war has begun.
