Hackers force Russian whistleblower to move hideout
RUSSIAN whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova has had her anti-doping records hacked in an attempt to find out where she and her family are living in the United States.
The Anti-Doping Administration and Management System, or ADAMS, is the online tool that allows drug-testers to know where athletes are so they can be randomly tested out of competition.
The World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed yesterday that the password for Stepanova’s ADAMS account had been ‘illegally obtained’ and ‘someone, other than Stepanova, had accessed her account’.
The 30-year-old middledistance runner and her husband Vitaly, a former employee of the discredited Russian anti-doping agency, were the key sources for the German journalist Hajo Seppelt’s documentary on Russia’s systemic cheating and the subsequent WADAfunded investigation into the scandal.
That investigation, which was led by former WADA president Dick Pound, ultimately led to the suspension of Russia’s antidoping agency, a Moscow anti-doping laboratory and the Russian athletics federation.
After an investigation into the hacking of Stepanova’s password, WADA said no other ADAMS accounts were accessed.
The couple fled Russia shortly before Seppelt’s documentary was broadcast in November 2014 and initially lived in Berlin. They then moved to the US with their young son.
According to American media reports, they have been forced to move again, leaving their now compromised secret location on Friday.
Stepanova, who served a drugs ban between 2013-15, had hoped to compete at Rio 2016 in the women’s 800 metres but her eligibility was blocked by the International Olympic Committee, despite support from the International Association of Athletics Federations and WADA.
The IOC’s decision was widely criticised by antidoping experts, many athletes’ groups and other whistleblowers.
Russia’s only athletics competitor at the Rio Olympics has been blocked from taking part in the Games by the sport’s world governing body the International Association of Athletics Federations.
American-based long jumper Darya Klishina was the only Russian athlete to come through the IAAF’s individual vetting process following the publication of a World Anti-Doping Agency-funded report into state-run doping in the world’s largest country.
But the IAAF reversed its decision on Friday, just four days before the 25year-old was due to compete, although she has immediately lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Rio.