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Exclusive: Thanou rejects IOC offer of Sydney gold
By Christopher Galakoutis
| Friday, August 7 2009 9:10:29 PM |
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The Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou recently rejected an International Olympic Committee offer that would have seen her receive the Sydney Olympics 100m gold medal stripped from Marion Jones in return for acknowledgement of guilt and full responsibility for the Athens 2004 controversy, HellenicAthletes.com has learned.
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The IOC’s lawyers have determined that Thanou, the silver medal winner at Sydney 2000, should be upgraded outright to the currently vacant gold medal position as there is no evidence that she had done anything wrong at the time, but IOC president Jacques Rogge has continued to resist moving forward with the recommendation and resolving the matter.
A source close to Thanou, 34, had told HellenicAthletes.com last December that her legal team was preparing a multi-million dollar legal action against the IOC. With indirect talks aimed at settling the dispute now broken off, that legal team, headed by Gregory Ioannidis, a professor of sports law at the University of Buckingham in the United Kingdom, is expected to file the lawsuits prior to the end of this year -- those specifically named, as HellenicAthletes.com had previously reported, include the IOC, Rogge and Greek IOC VP Lambis Nikolaou.
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Rogge continues to stand in way of resolution to Thanou case
(Claro Cortes IV/Reuters)
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Thanou did not compete in successive Olympics; she withdrew from the 2004 Athens Games and was barred by the IOC from Beijing 2008 by way of rule 45.2 of the Olympic Charter, on the grounds that she had brought the Olympic movement into “disrepute” for her “unacceptable behavior” at the 2004 Olympics, namely, that she and training partner Kostas Kenteris faked a motorcycle accident on the eve of the opening ceremonies to avoid being drug tested.
Athens prosecutors filed charges in November of 2004 against Thanou and others related to that crash, however the case has been postponed four times and has yet to be heard in a Greek court. With no final determination having been made under the Greek penal system, it is unclear what legal basis the IOC used last August in making reference to the undecided case, and barring Thanou from Beijing as a result.
That Greek case, a misdemeanor charge, is currently scheduled for November 10, but a legal ruling against her in a Greek courtroom is far from certain. Should she be found guilty, Thanou would most likely face a suspended sentence or a fine, the customary judgment in Greece for misdemeanors. The IOC position against her would also be bolstered.
On the other hand, Thanou’s position against the IOC would be reinforced should the Greek court find her not guilty of being involved in a staged accident. If that were to happen, the IOC’s actions against her to date would arguably be viewed as premature – a prejudgment of a sensitive legal matter that would weaken its “disrepute” claim and leave it vulnerable to Thanou’s legal challenge.
It is understood certain IOC members are anxious and very nervous about such an outcome; one that would restrain the IOC from repeating its Beijing ban should Thanou attempt to qualify for London 2012. HellenicAthletes.com has learned she has not ruled out that possibility, even though she would be 37 at the time.
Thanou’s lawsuit against the IOC is expected to argue, in part, that she was discriminated against when barred from competing in Beijing. In addition, she will argue that the authorities most relevant to her sport, namely the International Association of Athletics Federations, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport had already dealt with her 2004 case in a confidential agreement between the parties signed in 2006.
HellenicAthletes.com understands that while Thanou agreed that three drug tests had been missed in the lead-up to the 2004 Olympics, the official agreement in that settlement also states that Thanou did not evade or refuse to submit to the test on the eve of the Athens Games, a finding that was also consistent with the Greek federation’s investigation of the matter and official ruling.
Also in Thanou’s favor are the revised results from the 100m final at the 2001 World Athletics Championships, where the IAAF has already acknowledged the Greek as the silver medal winner after stripping it from Jones.
“Legally, we had no other choice,” IAAF spokesman Nick Davies told the BBC at the time. “There was no evidence of Thanou committing any doping offense during the period in question, which leaves us with no alternative but to award the medal to her.”
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Chris Galakoutis is a business and sports writer, as well as the founder and managing editor of HellenicAthletes.com. He can be reached at Chris@hellenicathletes.com
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