Mo Farah and Rafael Nadal named in latest Fancy Bears leak
Helen Glover, Justin Rose and three of the triumphant Great Britain women's hockey team are among the 26 athletes affected, along with Rafael Nadal, the Spanish 14-times grand slam tennis champion.
There were no surprises in the leak of Farah's data, which confirmed that he had been granted two TUEs over the past eight years. Farah, also under pressure over his links with the controversial coaches Alberto Salazar and Jama Aden, confirmed in the past that he had applied for two legitimate TUEs, although he initially claimed to have had only one.
In Birmingham in 2015, in the immediate aftermath of strenuously denied allegations against Salazar, Farah was asked specifically whether he had ever applied for an exemption. He said: "I've had one TUE and that was in Park City, I collapsed on the floor, was taken in an ambulance and put on a drip. That was the only one."
That was a reference to an incident when he collapsed after a training run at high altitude and had to be airlifted to hospital. But in an interview with Sky Sports News three weeks later, as the pressure on him over his relationship with Salazar intensified, Farah appeared to clarify his earlier statement.
"I've had two, I've had one recently in Park City and one in 2008," Farah said. Asked whether he had applied for TUEs to help with his asthma, Farah replied: "I'm not on TUE for asthma, I'm just on the normal, regular asthma [inhaler]. I just take it before exercise."
That tallies with the records released by the Fancy Bears group. The 2008 TUE relates to an injection of the anti-inflammatory triamcinolone days before he raced in Newcastle.
"As Mo has previously stated, he has got nothing to hide," a spokeswoman said, "and doesn't have a problem with this or any of his ADAMS [Wada's anti-doping administration and management system] 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. 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, which consisted of painkillers and being placed on a drip."
Nadal's TUEs are likely to prompt further questions after it emerged that he received intramuscular injections of Tetracosactide, which stimulates the production of corticosteroids and has been named in several doping cases involving cyclists. The Spaniard was injured at the time the certificate was retrospectively applied for in August 2012.
In March, Nadal said that he would sue the former French sports minister Roselyne Bachelot over doping allegations. The week before that he said: "I am a completely clean guy. I work so much during all my career, and when I get an injury, I get an injury. I never take nothing to be back quicker."
On Monday night Nadal told Spanish media: "When you ask permission to take something for therapeutic reasons and they give it to you, you're not taking anything prohibited.
"It's not news, it's just inflammatory." Nadal, who has twice been granted a TUE, said he had never taken anything to improve his performance but took what doctors advised him was the best medication to care for his troublesome knee.
He added: "It would be much more beneficial for sportsmen and women, spectators and media that every time a drug test is taken the news is made public and two weeks later there are the results. This would end the problem. Sport has to take a step forward and be totally transparent. I have been saying this for years."
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