The Fancy Bears hack group has revealed IOC letters appearing to indicate that Richard McLaren, a Canadian lawyer, was given a “clear political order” to prepare a report, which eventually led to a ban on Russia’s entire team of Paralympian athletes from the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and heavily contributed to Russia’s expulsion from the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games.
“The Fancy Bears' Hack Team obtained the International Olympic Committee officials' correspondence. These emails and documents point to the fact that the Europeans and the Anglo-Saxons are fighting for power and cash in the sports world,” the group said in a statement.
Fancy Bears claim that McLaren’s stance “unveils his real goal to get the trump card for the Anglo-Saxons in the game vs. IOC and not to fight against doping.”
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According to the hack group, the email, sent by Howard Stupp, IOC director of legal affairs, to the Committee’s senior members, contained comments on McLaren’s letter for Mark Adams’ consideration.
“It seems that RM’s [Richard McLaren’s] first report was intended to lead to the complete expulsion of the Russian Team from the Rio Games, and the second report…? To expulse the Russian Team from the Pyeongchang Games?…But not to deal with the athletes on an individual basis.”
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“Perhaps RM and WADA should have thought this through in more detail prior to the reports being made public — in particular, to themselves to have had the courtesy to discuss this matter of principle with the IOC in further detail, before WADA went down the path of using the (first) report to try to have the Russian Team excluded from the Rio Games, rather than RM and WADA considering to go down the path that the IOC intended to take, namely, to deal with the individual athletes on a case-by-case basis. This put the IOC and the IFs, and the Olympic movement in general, in a very difficult position,” the letter read.
The group, known as Fancy Bears, is infamous for, among other things, their hacks of WADA’s medical records containing data on international athletes who have used banned substances, including medal winners during the 2016 Rio Olympics.
