Rafael Nadal has given his side of the story following the leakage of the confidential World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) records. The past week, records of top athletes availing Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) were leaked by an alleged Russian hacker group “Fancy Bears”. Other top tennis stars affected were sisters Serena and Venus Williams, Petra Kvitova and Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
WADA confirms another batch of athlete data leaked by Russian cyber hackers ‘Fancy Bear’: https://t.co/H1c2vTHs2A
— WADA (@wada_ama) September 15, 2016
The records showed that Nadal was granted two TUEs wherein he was granted approval to use betamethasone, a corticosteroid used for reducing inflammation. This was granted in 2009 after he competed at the US Open. He was also granted approval to use corticotrophins back in 2012 – the time where he was out of the tour for most of the season due to another knee injury. Corticotrophins are not allowed for use even if the athletes are not competing thus the need for a TUE.
RAFA NADAL fue autorizado a tomar Betametasona y Corticotropina por la Agencia Mundial Antidopaje y la Fed Int Tenis pic.twitter.com/u2NmaNwL38
— El Partidazo de COPE (@partidazocope) September 19, 2016
Nadal said in an interview with Spanish media that the leaked documents are genuine.
“There are many things which, day to day, are banned substances,” he said.
“I have never taken anything to improve my sporting performance. Simply, the doctors [told] me to take something to improve my knee.”
“It is a private matter which does not need to be private,” Nadal said. “No need for a hacker to deliver it. It would be good for everyone. If every time you successfully do a doping test, [and] it’s announced and the results are published, it would finish all these discussions and all be transparent.”
