America's golden girl Simone Biles has become the victim of a Russian hacking scandal.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirmed Tuesday that a Russian cyber espionage group, known as Fancy Bear, illegally broke into its database and obtained private medical records of American athletes through an International Olympic Committee (IOC)-created account.
Along with Biles' health information, the hackers acquired Serena Williams and Venus Williams' records as well. All three athletes were reportedly given medical exemptions to use banned drugs.
The 19-year-old gymnast, who took home four gold medals and one bronze at the Rio Olympics, addressed the drug testing leak on Twitter Tuesday, revealing that she had been taking medication for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
"I have ADHD and I have taken medicine for it since I was a kid. Please know, I believe in clean sport, have always followed the rules, and will continue to do so as fair play is critical to sport and is very important to me," Biles tweeted.
In a subsequent post she wrote, "Having ADHD, and taking medicine for it is nothing to be ashamed of nothing that I'm afraid to let people know."
That same day, WADA's Director General, Olivier Niggli, released a statement: "WADA deeply regrets this situation and is very conscious of the threat that it represents to athletes whose confidential information has been divulged through this criminal act."
This is not the first time WADA has been hacked. In August, Russian whistleblower and former runner Yuliya Stepanova's medical history and testing results were leaked.
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