14 DAY TRIAL // Yuliya Stepanova, the Russian runner who blew the lid off Russia's state-sanctioned doping program, has been forced to relocate after discovering that her email and WADA ADAMS accounts were hacked.
The Russian athlete has been living in hiding for the past years together with her husband, Vitaliy Stepanov, a former employee of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency RUSADA.
Stepanova is the one who told the world about Russia's doping program
The two became famous in 2014, when they appeared in a documentary for a German television and revealed how Russian state sports agencies helped athletes dope and falsify tests for 5 percent of their earnings.
The Stepanova family went into hiding after numerous threats to their lives. Vladimir Putin, Russia's President, called Stepanova "Judas," inadvertently legitimizing her claims.
Her whistleblowing and a subsequent investigation helped WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, and IOC, the International Olympic Committee, suspend the Russian Federation's athletes from this year's Rio Olympics. In the meantime, the IOC has reinstated 278 of the 389 banned Russian athletes.
All athletes with prior positive drug tests were banned. Stepanova, an 800 and 1,500 meters distance runner, was banned herself from participating in Rio after getting caught doping in 2013.
Stepanova fears for her life
Participating in the Olympics is the last thing on Stepanova's mind at the moment. Through a third party, she told ESPN that her email was hacked during the past days, in an attempt to discover her secret whereabouts.
Additionally, attackers also hacked her WADA ADAMS account. ADAMS stands for Anti-Doping Administration and Management System and is a database that holds information on athletes' drug tests.
Athletes have ADAMS accounts where they enter their current whereabouts so they could be tested at any time by WADA agencies around the world. WADA acknowledged that someone had compromised Stepanova's account.
Yesterday, WADA acknowledged another cyber-incident. Hackers associated with the Anonymous hacker collective breached its website and promised to release its content.
Stepanova, her husband, and her young son are currently living at an undisclosed location in the US.