Doping Scandal: Greek Sprinters Quit Olympics

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The New York Sun

ATHENS, Greece – In the end, they jumped before they were pushed.


After a seven-day saga featuring missed drug tests, a suspicious motorcycle crash, and defiant denials, Greece’s top two sprinters pulled out of the Athens Olympics yesterday rather than be kicked out.


Avoiding the complete disgrace of expulsion, national icons Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou turned in their Olympic credentials to close a bizarre doping scandal that tarnished the host nation’s moment of celebration and cast a shadow over the entire games.


The International Olympic Committee took no action against the athletes and passed the case to track and field’s world governing body for any long-term punishment.


“We had material which we think could have led to a sanction,” IOC legal adviser Francois Carrard said. “The main thing is they are not competing in these games.”


Olympic officials are hopeful the decision, which came two days before the start of track competition, will turn the spotlight away from drugs.


“It’s good for the games that the issue is now a dead one,” said World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound.


Kenteris, the reigning Olympic 200-meter champion who had been expected to light the cauldron at last Friday’s opening ceremony, and Thanou, who won the 100-meter silver behind Marion Jones in Sydney, said they quit the games in the interest of Greece and the Olympics. Kenteris said he was severing ties with their coach, Christos Tsekos. All three handed over their Olympic accreditation.


The IOC opened an investigation after the sprinters failed to show for drug tests at the athletes’ village last Thursday. Late that night, the duo was admitted to an Athens hospital after reportedly being injured in a motorcycle wreck whose circumstances remain unclear.


IOC hearings with the athletes were postponed twice while they remained hospitalized. When they finally arrived yesterday morning, they strode grimfaced through a marble hotel lobby showing no sign of injuries. After an hour before a three-member disciplinary panel, they emerged before a press throng and announced that they had pulled out – while still insisting they were innocent.


The IOC executive board then met but decided it could take no further action. Once the athletes had given up their credentials, they were no longer under IOC jurisdiction, officials said. It’s clear, however, that the IOC would have kicked them out anyway.


“They realized the commission was not to be fooled with,” IOC vice president Thomas Bach, who chaired the disciplinary panel, told The Associated Press. “We were prepared for everything, we were prepared to go to the bitter end. I think when making their decision they took that in mind. They could draw the conclusions.”


The IOC handed the case to the International Association of Athletics Federations, which could ban the athletes for up to two years if they are found guilty of deliberately avoiding drug tests. Tsekos also could be banned.


Whether the sprinters and coach can take part in the 2008 Beijing Olympics also is in doubt.


The New York Sun

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