Fancy Bears leaked fake TUEs according to WADA officials

The Russian hacker group known as Fancy Bears proclaimed they were on a noble mission to expose high-profile Olympians that they were using the WADA therapeutic use exception (TUE) system to take performance enhancing drugs that would otherwise be banned. They released supposed proof that they believed showed the hypocrisy of the system as hundreds of athletes were getting TUEs on their way to competing at the 2016 Rio Olympics. On Sunday, WADA said that allegedly 18 of the TUE records were fakes when the board meet in Glasgow, Scotland.

WADA Medical Director Alan Vernec confirms to Foundation Board that many of the TUEs leaked by Fancy Bears had been modified

— WADA (@wada_ama) November 20, 2016

Beginning in September, Fancy Bears periodically leaked confidential medical records of prominent and respected athletes. High profile cyclists such as Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Nino Schurter and Catharine Pendrel were amoung athletes across multiple cycling disciplines whose TUEs were released. Athletes in multiple sports were implicated with confidential TUE records being released that showed they were authorized for medical reason to use banned substance. The use of TUEs is allowed, accepted, and within the WADA and UCI rules.

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In all, 228 TUE records of 127 athletes were leaked and then released by Fancy Bears. WADA officials said in a meeting of the agency’s board in Glasgow that not all the records released were authentic with WADA’s medical director Alan Vernac saying that 18 of those records were fabricated by Fancy Bears the National Post are reporting.

WADA Medical Director: Only 1% of the 11,303 athletes at Rio 2016 had Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs). No evidence of abuse of system

— WADA (@wada_ama) November 20, 2016

Russia’s intelligence agency is allegedly behind the WADA hacks which were in response to the McLaren report spearheaded by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren which exposed Russian laboratories and security agency of covering up hundreds of positive doping tests from 2011 to 2015.

It remains unclear which of the 228 TUEs leaked are thought to be fake with WADA saying that Fancy Bears is not believed to have forged documents rather Vernacsaid they tweaked existing documents that were obtained in the hack of WADA’s records.

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The scrutiny the hacks put the TUE system under has led to many stating the system needs more examination to work more effectively and leave less room for abuse by athletes seeking out substances for their performance benefits rather than for medical reason.