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Gold medallist Brennan, Bobridge and Belonogoff among medical records hacked

Kim Brennan of the Australian women's single scull in action during a training session at the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug 2, 2016. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)
16th September, 2016
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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.

Brennan, cyclist Jack Bobridge and rower Alexander Belonogoff feature on a third list released by hackers who stole it from WADA’s data storage system relating to Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) granted to athletes.

The documents show single sculls champion Brennan and Belonogoff, who was part of men’s quadruple sculls silver medal-winning team in Rio, were allowed to take epinephrine, which is often administered to asthmatics.

Brennan was given three doses between June 2015 and January 2014 with Belonogoff injected three times between 2015 and 2013.

Track persuit silver medallist Bobridge, who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2010, was prescribed with prednisolone and glucocorticoids over a five-year period.

The Australian trio were three of 11 athletes named on Friday along with British track star Laura Trott and double Olympic boxing champion Nicola Adams.

Earlier this week US gymnastics superstar Simone Biles, and Serena and Venus Williams had their TUEs leaked online along with cycling champions Chris Froome and Sir Bradley Wiggins.

The International Olympic Committee called the leaks an “outrageous” breach of confidentiality and have offered to assist WADA in communicating with Russian authorities over the matter.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose nation’s track and field athletes were banned from competing in Rio, along with their Paralympians, claimed the records raise a lot of questions.

“It seems as if healthy athletes are taking drugs legally that are prohibited for others, and people who are clearly suffering from serious illnesses, major disabilities, are suspected of taking some kind of substances and banned from the Paralympic Games,” Putin told Russian news agency TASS.

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