Monaco: In a press release sent today, the World Olympians Association (WOA) has today condemned the WADA data leaks and has called for reforms. The representative body of the Olympians from across the globe, today, said through a release that the actions of Russian cyber hacking group Fancy Bears and the public release of athletes’ confidential medical information will tarnish the image of clean athletes.
The premier Olympians representative body has said that by illegally disclosing the private Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) records of athletes held on WADA’s Anti-Doping Administration and Management system the hacking group is seeking to intentionally tarnish the reputation of clean athletes.
Earlier this month, the World Anti-Doping Agency had confirmed that the Russian cyber hackers, ‘Fancy Bear’ [aka Tsar Team (APT28)] had leaked confidential athlete data from WADA’s Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS), twice as per announcement by the agency on September 13, and September 16 amounting a confidential athlete data of 29 athletes, overall, including some key sporting icons. The Anti-Doping agency has confirmed that none of these athletes have been found guilty of any doping infractions; the application and approval of the TUEs were made in line with strict anti-doping regulations and based on rigorous medical standards.
The Olympians representative organization further claimed that it takes the protection of clean athletes very seriously and believes these leaks should be condemned but that reform is needed to strengthen the fight against doping.
Speaking about the issue, WOA President Joël Bouzou said, “WOA firmly believes in the need for transparency in the battle to protect sport from corruption. However, this illegal release of athletes’ private medical information is clearly designed to undermine the work of international federations and anti-doping bodies and damage the reputation of clean athletes. It cannot be right that clean athletes are seeing their good record unfairly questioned by innuendo.”
Further speaking about the rights of clean athletes and alienation of WOA along the Agenda 2020, he said, “WOA wholeheartedly supports the need to sanction those who have been found guilty of doping infractions but athletes that can prove with certainty they are clean, by means of thorough and independent testing and through the proper use of TUEs, should not be punished or called into question. And clean athletes should never be prevented from competing at sporting events from the Olympics and Paralympics on down. ”
Adding further the importance of changing the system to make it more effective to safeguard the interests of clean athletes, Bouzou said, “These latest developments are a reminder that the time is right for a debate on the future and that changes are needed in the anti-doping system which, in our view, is failing clean athletes.”
Speaking about the reforms, the organization suggests to be implemented in the Anti-Doping system, “WOA supports a three-point reform plan based on:
• anti-doping testing that is fully independent of countries, sports and event organisers;
• a permanent mechanism to allow clean athletes to compete even if their country/sport is sanctioned; and
• dramatically increased funding for research into improved anti-doping testing.
“WOA is committed to working with the relevant international bodies to help improve the fight against doping and ensure that the rights of individuals who have done no wrong are protected.”
During the leaks, however, as claimed by the World Anti-Doping agency the access to ADAMS was obtained through spear phishing of email accounts; whereby, ADAMS passwords were obtained enabling access to ADAMS account information confined to the Rio 2016 Games. It also tried to assure the athletes saying they had no reason to believe that other ADAMS data was compromised.