Mo Farah and Rafael Nadal are the latest victims of medical data hack

Their medical records were made public Monday.
 By 
Tim Chester
 on 
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Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Mo Farah and Rafael Nadal are among the latest group of athletes who have had medical data released as part of the Fancy Bear hack into the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

They were two of 26 athletes from 10 countries that WADA said were affected Monday, following the initial intrusion affecting Simone Biles and Serena Williams earlier this month.

British rower Helen Glover and American gymnast Laurie Hernandez were also featured in the latest batch, as were dozens of others from Argentina, Belgium, Burundi, Canada, Denmark, France, Hungary, Spain, the UK and the U.S.


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Last week, 25 more including Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins were named.

The leaked data centers around therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs), which allow athletes to take banned substances for certain medical needs.

Mo Farah, the British runner who won gold in the men's 5,000 meter and 10,000 meter for a second time in Rio, had two TUEs, according to the leak.

In October 2008, he apparently used one to sanction his use of triamcinolone, which is used to treat conditions including eczema, arthritis and allergies, and in 2014 he received a TUE after he collapsed during training and was put on a drip.

Farah's spokesperson said he "doesn't have a problem with this information being released - as evidenced by the fact that he voluntarily shared his blood data with the Sunday Times last year. Mo's medical care is overseen at all times by British Athletics and over the course of his long career he has only ever had two TUEs."

WADA recommended a blanket ban on all Russian athletes at this year's Olympic Games in August after its independent report found evidence of a state-run "doping programme" over the "vast majority" of the Olympic sports.

These hacks appear to be an attempt to discredit athletes from other nations and suggest that doping is widespread elsewhere. Fancy Bear says that TUEs are "licenses for doping."

Not everyone agrees, however, and some athletes — including British heptathlete Kelly Sotherton — had no problem admitting they'd had TUEs.

Most of the TUEs mentioned Monday were for asthma medication that no longer requires special permission, the BBC reports.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said Monday, according to the Associated Press, that while "we don't approve of the hackers' action, it has helped reveal that people, who took part in the Olympics and looked absolutely healthy, had taken banned medicines giving them an edge in competition."

WADA says it "is taking this situation concerning athlete privacy very seriously."

"The incident response team that we have assembled is actively working with law enforcement agencies in Canada and elsewhere, and acting on the intelligence obtained through our investigations to prevent any further intrusions."

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Tim Chester

Tim Chester was Senior Editor, Real Time News in Los Angeles. Before that he was Deputy Editor of Mashable UK in London. Prior to joining Mashable, Tim was a Senior Web Editor at Penguin Random House, helping to relaunch the Rough Guides website and other travel brands. He was also a writer for Buzzfeed, GQ and The Sunday Times, covering everything from culture to tech and current affairs. Before that, he was Deputy Editor at NME.COM, overseeing content and development on the London-based music and entertainment site. Tim loves music and travel and has combined these two passions at festivals from Iceland to Malawi and beyond.

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