Russia and the Anti-Doping Agency

With the Olympics come and gone, what is happening with the Russians and the Anti-Doping Agency? Well a lot of hackers are now accessing files to show that some athletes are taking illegal substances in competitions with the Anti-Doping Agency not caring.

Now this started just before the Olympics when the Anti-Doping Agency found out that the Russian Track and Field team had and still are using illegal substances for competitions, with apparently the government helping them out with the doping as well. The Olympic board then banned the Russian team from being able to go to the Rio Olympics. In response over time hackers have then been getting into the databases of the Anti-Doping Agency and have released confidential information about other athlete’s medical files. These files don’t contain anything ‘under the rugs’ per say, but there is renewed decisions about allowing TUEs (Therapeutic Use Exemptions) allowing some athletes to use illegal substances in competitions if they’re sick or have an allergy. The group that is hacking into the Anti-Doping Agency says that allowing TUEs to exist is basically allowing the legal use of illegal substances. How it just gives the athletes with TUEs a ‘license to dope freely’ because they’re ‘sick’, leading to the hacker group calling the Anti-Doping Agency “corrupt and deceitful”.

Such athletes like Bradley Wiggins had permission to take 2 banned substances on several occasions. One of them, triamcinolone acetonide, was allowed to be taken because he was allergic to pollen according to the medical files. The French cyclist Froome was taking steroid-like drugs because he had a chill during his competitions. Are these just fake excuses for athletes to take drugs, or they have legitimate medical reasons is based on what you think. However, it still comes to the question should we make TUEs public? Since they are just drugs that are should just be used for helping with some small medical problem, but making TUEs public does violate most athlete’s personal privacy.

The Anti-Doping Agency has responded by saying that they are "very mindful that this criminal attack, which to date has recklessly exposed personal data of 29 athletes, will be very distressing for the athletes that have been targeted; and, cause apprehension for all athletes that were involved in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.” The Director of the Anti-Doping Agency has stated that this attack was probably a retaliation from the fact the Russian Track & Field team couldn’t come to the Rio Olympics and that the Russian Government was sponsoring this cheating.