The former head of the International Paralympic Committee suspects he was targeted by Russian hoaxers for the second time in a year on the day the country was banned from the Winter Olympics.
Sir Philip Craven has warned other sporting administrators to be wary of impersonators after recordings of his voice were used in a series of phone calls to various high-profile figures. The German journalist Hajo Seppelt, who played a key role in exposing systematic doping in Russia, answered a phone call on Tuesday by someone claiming to be Craven.
While the voice sounded familiar, Seppelt sensed something was amiss when “Craven” did not respond to his questions in the manner he would expect. He contacted IPC officials and gave them the UK phone number that called him.
Craig Spence, the IPC communications director, called the number and it was answered by an “east European voice”. He asked to speak to “Sir Philip” and was told he would call back in five minutes. Spence immediately phoned back and the call first went to a Russian voicemail message.
However, five minutes later, with the Bolton-born Craven sitting alongside Spence in a meeting room at the IPC’s Bonn headquarters, the number called back and “Craven” started to ask Spence questions.
“We thought at the very most it was going to be some poor impersonation of a Bolton accent,” Spence said. “But as soon as Sir Philip heard it he mouthed an expletive to me and wrote on a notepad: ‘That’s definitely my voice.’”
Craven suspects the questions had been spliced together from recordings of several of his speeches.
Spence said: “This highlights the lengths people are willing to go to in an attempt to trip up sports administrators in the current period. We told the IOC about it because someone could be attempting to impersonate Thomas Bach.”
Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, enforced a blanket ban on Russia participating at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics , ruling clean athletes from the country could compete only as neutrals.
He followed the lead of Craven, who resigned as IPC president in September but had banned Russia from the Rio Paralympics in 2016. He fell foul of a similar prank call in October that year when someone claiming to be the double Olympic 400 metres hurdles champion Edwin Moses phoned him.
During that call, Craven made some critical remarks about Bach and a recording of the call was later released by the Russian broadcaster RT.
The IPC passed on the details of the most recent hoax call to the IOC and the German police. The calls were taken largely in good humour by Craven but sporting bodies are increasingly wary of Russian interference since Fancy Bears hackers leaked confidential medical details of scores of athletes after breaching the database of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
