Four more Australian athletes including Olympic swim star Cate Campbell and world champion canoeist Jessica Fox have had their confidential medical information leaked by cyber espionage group Fancy Bears.
The information released includes details of therapeutic use exemptions or TUEs, which allow athletes to use certain prohibited substances under strict rules to treat legitimate medical conditions.
The records are the fifth batch published by the Russian hackers who stole them from the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) data storage system.
Queensland swimmers Madison Wilson and Taylor McKeown are the other two Australians among 41 international athletes whose details are the latest to be circulated from Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Serbia, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and USA.
The release has been quickly condemned by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) who rejects any suggestion of wrongdoing by the athletes.
“Before being granted, TUE applications are assessed by a number of medical experts through a rigorous process,” the body said in a statement issued on Saturday .
“In the cases of all four (Australian) athletes named today, this process determined that their medication use was both necessary for their health and would not give performance enhancing benefits.
“ASADA again condemns the malicious attacks. The leaks are a poor attempt to discredit these athletes and do not show any wrong doing. Certainly, such exemptions do not constitute doping.”
Australian Canoeing said Fox’s TUE had been granted by the International Canoe Federation for emergency use only
“Jess had an allergic reaction to ant bites during a training camp in Rio in April,” it said in a statement.
“The TUE was subsequently approved through a robust process overseen by a number of medical experts who deemed that the treatment was both necessary and would not give her any performance enhancing benefits.
“Jess has not had to use the treatment since.”
Australian Canoeing CEO Greg Doyle said athletes, just like the rest of the population, were entitled to medical treatment in emergency situations and Fox had done “absolutely nothing wrong”.
British Olympic star Mo Farah, who is also among the total of 107 athletes who have now had their records leaked, said on Monday he had nothing to hide.
Other big names include tennis great Rafael Nadal, Tour de France winners Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome and Australian rowing champion Kim Brennan.
SPF
Guest
Firstly, it is unfair to assume all athletes which have been listed as having a TUE are doing it to circumvent the system and use PED. Having said that, it would be naive not to assume that one or more athletes could be doing just that. The athletes which have been listed as having a TUE to utilize an EPI pen in emergencies due to severe allergies for example should be entitled to have a TUE. I am talking about Jess Foxx and the rower Sasha Belonogoff. If you know someone that suffers from severe allergies then you know how essential having an EPI pen is to that person. There are also very valid TUEs for life saving treatments administered in hospitals, such as Kim Brennan who was administered Adrenalin in an emergency department in a hospital to save her life after a severe allergic reaction. Surely that is not doping, she was very ill at the time it was administered, and followed the due process to apply for a TUE. Regarding TUEs for asthma medication. It is not surprising a lot of swimmers have TUEs for asthma medication. There has been medical findings that professional swimmers are susceptible to asthma for various reasons such as their exposure to chlorine over an extended period of time. A lot of the drugs listed in the banned list used to treat asthma would have no performance enhancement affect on someone who did not have asthma, because they already have clear airways. You can find several articles on the occupational hazards of swimmers, and one of the common health concerns is damage to their lungs. Point is, respiratory health issues is not uncommon in swimmers. Most of the swimmers listed on the leaks have one or more TUEs for respiratory / allergy related treatments. This leak actually made me look up details of what some of the drugs listed on the TUEs and it was interesting to learn about how some of the items on the banned list really have no benefit for someone healthy, if they took it by itself. Which is why it is baffling why they are on the banned list. But there are probably legitimate scientific reasons which are not disclosed (i.e. the drug may be used as a masking agent, or long term use in a healthy person may have some benefits). WADA may need more transparency of why so many of the asthma medications are on the banned list, although one of the items which Cate Campbell had on her TUE for an asthma medication, is no longer banned, so at least one of her TUEs must be more than 12 months old. These leaks have not yet expose any other state wide sponsored doping by another country, or revealed any sport scientist / doctor who is assisting a group of athletes to cheat the system via TUEs or other means. There is innuendo about specific athletes and their TUEs, but that is on a very different scale to the findings in the McLaren report around allegations of systematic doping and alleged falsifying of test results, within a single nation. The leaks have exposed how WADA needs to review their transparency on why substances are on the banned lists and require a TUE, and to be more open to the public on the process of how TUEs are granted, which they have since done. The TUE leaks also exposed flaws in their data security, which clearly needs to be looked into. That should be the bigger immediate concern for WADA. They need to sure up their data security.
Jacko
Guest
For me these releases of this info shows that the line I thought existed for PEDs is far more blurred that I ever would have imagined and it would appear that most Elite athletes are very unhealthy with all that Asthma and heart treatment drugs they are on. Here is another interesting article on the subject. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11716076