it stated that "three or four" Russian athletes might be permitted to appear as independent competitors. Its taskforce recommended that Stepanova be allowed to compete due to her "truly exceptional contribution to the fight against doping in sport" including "great personal risks". WADA's former chief investigator, Jack Robertson, praised Stepanova for giving information without asking for a reduction of her sentence, to which she was entitled as a whistleblower. She completed her full sentence. On 1 July 2016, the IAAF approved Stepanova's application to compete as a neutral athlete. Five days later, she competed at the European Championships but finished last in her heat with a torn ligament in her foot. On 24 July, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rejected the recommendation to allow Stepanova to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics, citing her drug infraction in 2013, for which she had served her sentence. WADA director general Olivier Niggli stated that his agency was "very concerned by the message that this sends whistleblowers for the future." Stepanova said, "Unfortunately, the behaviour of [IOC President] Thomas Bach was the same as Russia's behaviour towards us." In August 2016, WADA reported that Stepanova's athlete account, where she enters information about her whereabouts, had been hacked. According to WADA, "A subsequent investigation allowed the agency to determine that no other athlete accounts on ADAMS have been accessed." Bach said that the IOC was "not responsible for dangers to which Ms. Stepanova may be exposed." In October 2016, the IOC announced that it had offered to assist Stepanova to continue her sports career. Later the same year, she was chosen as one of BBC's 100 Women and Germany's Doping-Opfer-Hilfe (Doping Victims Assistance) awarded her its 2016 Anti-Doping Prize. Yuliya trained to compete at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics but did not compete. In July 2018, Stepanova testified before the U.S. Helsinki Commission in Washington, DC on the subject of doping in sports. She was on a panel alongside Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Administration, Jim Walden, the attorney for Russian Whistle-blower Grigory Rodchenkov, and Katie Uhlaender, a four-time Olympian competitor in skeleton. Stepanova claimed that speaking out against doping in Russia would have put her life at risk. Personal life Rusanova was born and raised in Kursk. She married Vitaly Stepanov in 2009, and gave birth to their son in November 2013. She now uses the surname Stepanova, the feminine