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RIO DE JANEIRO -- The Russian whistleblowers, whose revelations ignited the scandal that has engulfed their countrys sporting establishment, say their safety concerns have deepened after an online security breach by someone they suspect may be trying to track their movements.If something happens to us, all of you should know its not an accident, 800-meter runner Yuliya Stepanova said Monday, speaking through an interpreter on a conference call with reporters from an undisclosed location in the United States.We are trying to take every measure possible to be safe, which is why we have moved. [But] if somebody really wanted to do something to us, they would probably succeed.She and her husband Vitaly Stepanov, a former employee of the now-discredited Russian Anti-Doping Agency, fled Russia with their toddler son in late 2014 after providing information and secretly recorded footage that acted as a wedge to lift the lid on widespread, systematic doping and corruption in the Russian track and field establishment.International track officials suspended the Russian federation in late 2015. Over the course of two investigations that generated considerable evidence -- including sabotage and coverups at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games on-site laboratory that were intended to up the Russian medal count -- the World Anti-Doping Agency and a group of national anti-doping agencies called for a total ban on Russian athletes in Rio.However, the International Olympic Committee, citing the rights of individual athletes, passed along the responsibility for determining eligibility to international governing bodies for each sport. The process eventually enabled the majority of Russian athletes to compete at the Summer Games. Stepanova, whose request to run as a neutral athlete was refused by the IOC, was a notable exception.Stepanova said she plans to watch the broadcast of the 800-meter event even though she is a little sad.I expected to be barred from the Olympic Games, said Stepanova, who joined her husband as an informant after she was sanctioned for biological passport abnormalities. She served a two-year ban and has detailed her doping regimen for authorities.[The IOC] never tried to understand our situation, she said. Yes, I admit I was part of that [Russian doping] system. However, I decided I would no longer wanted to be part of that system, and I told the truth. I have apologized for my past many times. Theres nothing I can do to change it.Vitaly Stepanov called the IOCs actions frustrating because they took the side of corrupt Russian sports officials.We still have this hope it will bring changes and make competition cleaner and fairer, globally and in Russia as well, he said. A lot of talented Russian athletes have no possibility to win ... clean athletes have no possibility to succeed.If youve been in the Russian system for more than three years, you know exactly whats happening. You have three options. Lie, stay quiet, or start telling the truth.He said he was discouraged more Russian athletes have not come forward, but added that he understands why: As soon as you open your mouth, you will be fired. Athletes dont want to lose all their salaries, since they have families as well.Yuliya Stepanova said she discovered her personal email account was blocked a few days ago, but didnt think much of it at first. She then discovered that she couldnt access her information on WADAs online whereabouts system that is intended for the use of drug testers and administrators only, known by the acronym ADAMS (Anti-Doping Administration and Management System).That alarmed us, because the only reason someone would hack into the ADAMS account is to find out about our whereabouts, Stepanova said.The couple has been in the United States since last year after spending some months in Germany.WADA confirmed the breach and said Stepanova was the only athlete targeted.The couple did not reference any specific threats, but in the past, have used as context the sudden death of former RUSADA head Nikita Kamaev in February, 10 days after another former agency chief died.The Stepanovs spoke via a video conference call arranged by a Switzerland-based group that recently launched a fundraising effort and has been fielding media requests.We have no regrets we have chosen this path, Vitaly Stepanov said. 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With his new coach and six-time Grand Slam singles champion Boris Becker watching him during an official match for the first time, Djokovic appeared tentative early against the Slovakian player, who often appeared content to keep the ball in play. The last word Kari Castle would use to describe herself is fearless. She claims shes no daredevil.Ive always said Im a gutless coward, she says, laughing.In fact, the first time she took hang gliding lessons back in 1981, she was too terrified to leave the ground. Shed get strapped into the glider, get a running start at the top of a 200-foot hill and then crash, time after time. Shed abort the moment she felt the wing lift.It scared the crap out of me, she says. So I pulled the bar in to make it stop, and Id crash. I did that all day. I couldnt allow myself. I couldnt trust it. At the end of the day I was so sore and beat up and tired. Humiliated.Yet somehow she still wanted to soar like an eagle. She went back the next day, started with a crash, got up, charged down the hill again ... and lifted off. When I finally got in the air I was like, Oh, that was easy, she recalls. I couldnt believe how easy it was once I just let it do its thing. Then you couldnt stop me.Over the 35 years since, Castle has made her home in the clouds.At 55, shes one of the all-time greats in her sport. She continues to fly both hang gliders and paragliders while working as a teacher and coach in Bishop, California, and doing stunt-double work in movies and television. Shes won three womens world hang gliding championships (and been second twice). Shes had 20 national championships and was selected to the six-person (usually all-male) national team three times. She also won seven paragliding national championships.She has traveled the world, seen gorgeous sights and flown over the Alps and Andes. Plus, shes set five womens world records in hang gliding, three of which still stand: longest-distance flight (250.7 miles), longest straight flight to a declared goal (219.6 miles) and longest dogleg (one-turn) flight (181.5 miles).After thousands of hours in the air, suspended only by straps and wind, Castle feels completely comfortable in the sky yet still cant quite explain how she can step off a high, rocky ledge and trust shell fly. She trusts her equipment and takes every safety precaution. And she also surmises its just too fun and too beautiful for her not to.I cant even climb a ladder without being afraid, but I can be 10,000 feet above the ground and look down and feel like thats normal, and it feels good, she says. It is too good to be true. Its a dream just to float away from a mountain.When Castle moved to California in 1982 from her native Michigan, it was to go to community college. Hang gliding wasnt a priority, ranking behind school and becoming a lifeguard. She did lifeguarding and was an aerobics instructor before eventually graduating to a 9-to-5 job for a technology marketing research firm in the Bay Area. In the interim she found one of the states best hang gliding schools just minutes away from her home in Fremont.She couldnt afford it, so the school cut a deal with her: work for lessons. She did whatever was needed, including setting up a simulator in malls and selling lessons to others. So, she was flying, working at the school and having a great time. One time, a local hang gliding club needed a woman for a competition. They said, Kari, we need you to enter. We need a chick, she recalls. She won the womens division.She remembers she couldnt do a 360-turn that was required, but she nailed her takeoff and landing and stayed up for hours, longer than any other woman.Thats what I was good at.The victory set the competitive hook in her. In 1988 she moved to Bishop, one of the hot spots for the sport. Nestled in the Owens Valley between the Sierra Nevada and White mountains, the Bishop area has the right combination of wind and peaks to be a hang gliding magnet.That year she found her perfect home -- one where she can be perpetually outside and active, hang gliding, hiking, climbing, mountain biking and skiing (downhill and Nordic). She also won her first womens national hang gliding title.Her new home was the catalyst for her new career as a teacher, coach and guide as well. She saw so many people who had taken lessons but couldnt progress -- and still really didnt know what they were doing.They learn just enough where their instructor says, You can go out and fly, these are the restrictions, be careful, dont fly in these conditions, dont do this, and the idea is they go out and hopefully get taken unnder someone elses wings, who help them along in the next part of their journey, she says.dddddddddddd But many didnt know where to go to get that mentor. She filled that niche.Now, too, she coaches top-echelon hang gliders, passing on what shes learned over 35 years. Castle is no longer driven to compete in hang gliding, though she says shes not officially retired. And, she continues to enter some paragliding competitions. But at this point, its not all the championships shes won or the records shes set that are most dear to her.Whats most important, she says, is the life shes been able to lead. Today, shes engaged to be married, still flying and giving back to the sport as an official (she helped organize the 2015 national championships) and able to split time between Bishop, Baja California and the Hood River in Oregon (where she kite boards).Also, now, shes giving back to others. Shes part of The Cloudbase Foundation, an organization of free-flight pilots that raises money and does projects in communities across the U.S., South America, Africa and Asia where competitions are held. Shes doing similar work with another hang gliding/paragliding group, Wings of Kilimanjaro, in Africa.Hang gliding is predominantly a mental and skill sport. Elite competitions last from four to 12 days. The pilot who takes his or her glider over a set course -- around designated turn points -- the fastest is the winner of each days route. Daily results are averaged for an overall champion.You have to be accurate, she says. These turn points, you have to be within a 400-meter radius.When she first started competing, pilots would wrap maps around their base bars (the bars held by the pilots to control the craft, along with weight shifts) and use them for navigation. To prove theyd flown over a turn point, they had to take pictures. Then race organizers would have to develop the film to check. Now the pilots use GPS, and race officials track their flights in detail.She says the evolution of the sport has been amazing. These days, too, hang gliders can soar over flat lands such as Arkansas or Texas. A place like Bishop isnt necessary. Pilots and their craft can be towed skyward, then catch the winds.But whether its 2016 or 1988, two things have remained constant: the thrills and dangers of the sport. Castle has had just enough of the dangers to always make her cautious. She takes no extra risks.Twice shes had to deploy her reserve parachute, once in the Owens Valley in 1988 from 15,500 feet and the other in the Alps just a few years ago. In both cases, her glider got caught in dangerous wind shifts and tumbled out of control.Both times, she thought she would die. The first time she had a hard landing, injured a foot, cracked her tailbone and vertebrae and lost a tooth. The second time, she had a soft landing with no injuries, but it helped her to decide to cut back her competition schedule.I was tumbling just like a leaf out of the tree, flipping, tumbling, she recalls. When she finally was able to deploy her chute, she felt lucky. After that it was like, I dont want to play anymore.But she cant imagine not flying for fun.Almost every flight, I look around and Im like, Holy moly, Im still doing this. Im still in one piece. I mean, I know way too many people that arent. But yeah, just the simple act of running off a mountain and flying -- how many people really do that? Not very many.As she describes her life, she gets emotional. The champion who laughs often and pokes fun at herself feels blessed. The fact Ive been able to live my dream, I feel like thats an accomplishment, she says. Without even realizing it. Because all along Ive been like, Oh, gosh, what am I going to be when I grow up? Ive got to do something.But its taken me a long time to accept that what Ive done is OK. I keep thinking I should be doing something with my life ... but so many people have led that serious working life and then I see them and they say, Damn, I wish I would have followed my passion or what I was meant to do.Which is what Castle is doing -- and finally appreciating.I remember my friend a few years ago, she said, Gosh, Kari, you live the life of a millionaire, but you have no money, she says, laughing. ' ' '