HellenicAthletes.com
Organized doping or not, Greek sport in serious trouble
By Christopher Galakoutis
Tuesday, August 19 2008 12:39:42 AM
One of the saddest days in Olympic memory -- which saw the host country lose its star Liu Xiang to injury -- was made sadder still today by the ongoing train wreck that is the Greek doping scandal.
The 2008 version, that is.
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The International Olympic Committee has officially revoked Fani Halkia’s Beijing Olympics accreditation, and has asked the International Association of Athletics Federations to initiate any further sanctions against her. Halkia, the defending Olympic women's 400-meter hurdles champion, tested positive for the steroid methyltrienolone at the Greek team’s training camp in Japan on August 10 before arriving in Beijing. |
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Speaking to The Associated Press, the president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee said today that organized doping is likely behind the recent spate of positive drug tests in Greek sports. "There are 15 people, all with the same substance,” said Minos Kyriakou, adding, “This is the strangest thing, because it leads to the conclusion that there is an organized effort."
Including Halkia, the other athletes testing positive for the same drug include 11 weightlifters, a swimmer, as well as the sprinters Dimitris Regas and Tassos Gousis.
The IOC also said it was reporting the Halkia matter to Greek authorities, and requesting they investigate her coach, Giorgos Panagiotopoulos.
Speaking to the Greek ‘MEGA’ television channel today, Panagiotopoulos said:
“It would be my pleasure for Greek justice to intervene. I want them to intervene. My two athletes (Halkia and Regas) did not use methyltrienolone. I believe there has been sabotage or tampering at doping control. I had never heard of that substance, and only learned about it after the weightlifting scandal. One thing is certain, that I would never give such substances to my athletes. How is it possible that one would take prohibited substances only a few days prior to the Olympics, you would have to be insane.”
The same sentiments have also been expressed by Gousis’ coach, Thorodos Gatzios, who was certain that the “B” sample would exonerate his runner. It did not. Gousis, who was previously coached by Panagiotopoulos, has been adamant that he is clean.
Panagiotopoulos coaches Halkia, Regas as well as the 2005 European Under-23 100m champion Maria Karastamati, and was a sprinter during his athletics career. His best result was a 5th place finish in the 200m final at the 1997 IAAF World Championships in Athletics.
While he was coached during his competitive years by the notorious Christos Tzekos -- the former coach of the sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou -- HellenicAthletes.com understands that after Panagiotopoulos created his own training group a serious rift emerged between the two, and a rivalry developed between their respective groups.
The 15 methyltrienolone positives may in fact, at some point, be shown to be part of a systemic doping regimen by the Greek coaches and athletes -- but an open question does remain.
The earliest positives were announced in April, and continued throughout the summer with the Halkia positive just a few days ago.
This is highly unusual if there has been an organized effort to dope, in that anyone in the “program” would arguably have ceased taking the drug when the first positives were announced in the spring.
That did not happen, and the positives kept coming, leading us to speculate, in an earlier piece, that there may be some truth to the argument from the Greek side that supplements they had purchased online from a Chinese company were contaminated.
However in an article titled ‘Internet trade catches Greeks’ on the ‘The Australian’ website today, Patrick Arnold, of BALCO infamy, is referenced as saying that methyltrienolone, “was one of the ‘most powerful’ anabolic steroids created.”
The story added: “Arnold said that several athletes used methyltrienolone in the 1990s and were able to successfully pass doping controls due to the very small quantities of the steroid required for performance enhancing effects.”
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Chris Galakoutis is the managing editor of HellenicAthletes.com. He can be reached at info@hellenicathletes.com
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[Last modified August 19, 2008, 23:06:20]