Thanou's selection presents IOC with quandary

Enlarge Photo Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou prepares to compete in the 60m event of an indoor track...

Wed, Jul 23 11:05 PM

By Karolos Grohmann

ATHENS (Reuters) - Katerina Thanou, banned for doping violations at the 2004 Olympics, has been included in Greece's squad for the Beijing Games but whether the sprinter will run next month remains to be seen.

With the deadline for qualifying set at 2200GMT on Wednesday, Thanou, who failed a drug test on the eve of the Athens Games, will have her place on the Hellenic Olympic Committee's (HOC) squad confirmed.

"Since we have still not heard from her and the qualification deadline ends tonight with no contender for Thanou's 100m spot, she is included in our official Olympic team," an HOC official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Thanou, who with fellow sprinter Costas Kenteris missed a drugs test before Athens and then claimed to have crashed their motorcycle, was eventually banned for two years until December 2006.

She has not yet said if she will go to the Beijing Games starting on Aug 8 but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has made it clear it would examine her right to compete before allowing her to race.

Asked whether there was any time limit for her to inform the HOC she will not go to Beijing, the official said once Wednesday's deadline ran out it could be as late as just before her first race. The first round of 100m heats is set for Aug 16.

The IOC, who urged the pair to withdraw from the Athens Olympics after their affair overshadowed the start of the Games, has said it reserves the right to investigate her eligibility for the Beijing Games.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said recently should the HOC enter Thanou as a team member, the IOC would examine her eligibility.

GOLD MEDAL

Thanou, still facing charges in Greece for staging the bike crash with Kenteris, is not the only formerly banned athelete to qualify for these Games.

Hungarian discus thrower Robert Fazekas qualified for the Games late on Tuesday.

Like Thanou, Fazekas was banned for two years for a doping violation at the Athens Olympics. He lost his gold medal after he failed to provide a sufficient urine sample.

Like Thanou, he qualified for the Beijing Olympics, with both the Hungarian athletic association and the country's Olympic committee raising no objections to his participation.

But the complications in Thanou's case do not end there.

There is still the matter of the IOC's upgrading of athletes after it stripped U.S. sprinter Marion Jones, who admitted to doping, her five medals from the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Thanou, a 100m silver medallist at the Sydney Games, now stands to get the gold.

But the IOC has also insisted the process of upgrading would not be automatic and medals would go to athletes who were positively clean. A decision on Jones' medals is expected during an IOC meeting days before the Games start.

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