Nothing to hide
Farah not fazed by Russian hack leak
MO FARAH insists he has ‘nothing to hide’ after becoming the latest athlete to be targeted by Russian hackers determined to expose Rio 2016 stars for taking banned substances.
The four-time Olympic champion is among the latest batch of British athletes to have their confidential medical records leaked online by the Fancy Bears group.
Golfer Justin Rose, double Olympic rowing champion Helen Glover and women’s hockey gold medallists Sam Quek and Alex Danson are also listed, although there is no suggestion any of them have done anything wrong.
Farah was shown to have been given an injection of the corticosteroid triamcinolone, which can be used as an antiinflammatory, in October 2008. He also received intravenous infusions of saline solution, morphine sulphate and took the painkiller vicodin when he was hospitalised in 2014 after collapsing following a training run.
He was given a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) in both instances — official speak for permission to use banned substances to treat a genuine medical condition.
But the leak did raise uncomfortable questions for the 33-year-old, who claimed last year that he had only had one TUE during his career. An investigation by the BBC and American website ProPublica last summer alleged his coach Alberto Salazar had exploited the exemption system to obtain banned drugs such as asthma medication to give his athletes a competitive edge.
At a press conference in Birmingham in the aftermath of the doping allegations against Salazar, who is still under investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, Farah was asked: ‘Very specifically, have you ever had a TUE?’ He responded: ‘Yes, I have. One TUE and that was when I was in Park City and collapsed on the floor and I was taken in the ambulance and I was put on the drip. There was only one.’
Farah’s representatives suggested yesterday that his insistence that he had only ever had one TUE, when in fact he has had two, was because he believed the question to relate to his time with Salazar, who he began working with in early 2011.
A spokeswoman for Farah said: ‘As Mo has previously stated, he has got nothing to hide.
‘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. The first was back in 2008 for a one-off anti-inflammatory treatment to an injury. The second was in 2014 when Mo collapsed and was airlifted to hospital for emergency care.’
The 2014 collapse happened in the bathroom of his apartment in Park City, Utah, while he was on a training camp. The treatment Farah received in 2008 would also not require a TUE these days in accordance with rule changes.
Justin Rose, who won the first gold medal in golf for 112 years in Rio, was among the 26 athletes, including eight Britons, to be named in the fourth release of names by the group which has previously targeted tennis star Serena Williams and cycling’s Sir Bradley Wiggins. Rose had authorisation for daily dosages of the antiinflammatory drug prednisolone between May this year and June 20.
Danson and Crista Cullen, part of the hockey team who won a historic gold in Rio, both received exemptions for taking salbutamol, salmeterol and fluticasone propionate between 2008 and 2010, while the former had been given exemptions for methylprednisolone in 2008 and dexamethasone in 2014. Team-mate Quek also received exemptions for salbutamol between 2008 and 2010.
Gold medallist Glover was allowed to take salbutamol between 2009 and 2013, while fellow rower Pete Reed had exemption for prednisolone in April 2014. Scots cyclist Callum Skinner was granted exemption for both prednisolone in November 2014 and for salbutamol in January this year.
It was also revealed Rafael Nadal, the former tennis world No 1, had been given exemptions in 2009 and 2012.
The hackers broke into a World Anti-Doping Agency database set up for the Olympics and are believed to be seeking revenge for the suspension of some Russian athletes from the Olympics. They go by the name ‘Fancy Bears’ — a moniker linked with the Kremlin’s electronic espionage operations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin denied being involved in the hacking, although he added: ‘It has helped reveal that people, who took part in the Olympics and looked absolutely healthy, had taken banned medicines.’