Kaori Matsumoto named in Fancy Bears’ WADA cyber hack. No foul play revealed.

SOURCE: Asahi News Digital (Updated 10.04.2016 as NHK article is no longer available)

Former Olympic Champion and reigning bronze medalist in the -57kg category, Kaori Matsumoto’s name appeared among 41 athletes, whose names were leaked on Sept. 23 by a hacking organization known as Fancy Bears. The organization, suspected to be based in Russia recently revealed biological data of Olympic athletes held in a database managed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Of the 41 athletes revealed in the most recent attack, Kaori Matsumoto was the only Japanese athlete named in the leak. The report revealed that Matsumoto had received a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) in order to treat an injury back in 2007. The drug, dexamethasone is a corticosteroid that helps prevent inflammation. No rules were broken and Japan can take pride in the fact that as a country they have a very clean record in terms of doping scandals.

Personally, I am really glad that the playing field in Japan seems to be fairly level as far as I am aware. I remember being very disappointed to learn that an athlete I admired and respected as a youth used a doping regimen to help himself overcome an injury an recover in time for a major tournament. Throughout my judo life, I have met a number of other athletes who admitted to having doped in order to enhance their performance. I really hope that Japan will continue to set a high-standard as being one of the ‘clean’ nations in international judo.