The final curtain fell Wednesday on a weeklong drama that has riveted this nation. Greece’s two top sprinters, suspected in a doping scandal, withdrew from the Olympics.
While still insisting they had not used illegal drugs, defending men’s 200-meter champion Kostas Kenteris and women’s 100-meter silver medalist Katerina Thanou pulled out two days before the track and field events begin. Kenteris also announced he was “terminating” his collaboration with the pair’s longtime coach, Christos Tzekos, who sometimes works out of Chicago.
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The withdrawals were announced outside an International Olympic Committee hearing where they had been summoned before a disciplinary panel investigating their failure to show up for doping tests a week ago. Before the panel could rule, the runners and their coach said they would withdraw from the Games, making an IOC decision moot.
Still, the IOC said, the “seriousness” of the charges required it to refer the matter to the International Association of Athletic Federations for possible sanctions.
When the two athletes emerged from the hearing, Kenteris maintained his innocence, claiming he had never ducked a drug test.
“I was never informed that I had to attend a doping test at the Olympic Village,” he said.
Saying he would withdraw in the “national interest,” Kenteris was firm in his own defense but less strident than when he had lashed out Tuesday.
“I want to tell ordinary fans who have stood by me that I am suffering a terrible injustice,” he said Tuesday. “All those who are crucifying me are those who would come up to me and pose for photographs after every great success. But I want to add that after crucifixion comes resurrection.”
Greek hopes of glory in track and field were dashed with the withdrawal of Kenteris, 31, and Thanou, 29, both medal winners in the 2000 Games in Sydney.
The two had been scheduled to take drug tests Aug. 12 but were not found in their rooms at the Olympic Village. Early the next morning, they wound up hospitalized after a bizarre midnight motorcycle accident that left many openly wondering if the crash had been staged to avoid the medical exams.