Greece pulled their world indoor high jump champion Dimitris Chondrokoukis out of the London Games on Thursday after he failed a doping test, the second blow in two days for the birthplace of the Olympics.
A day earlier, triple jumper Paraskevi Papachristou was withdrawn from the London team for a tweet on Africans in Greece that was slammed as racist, shocking a nation already reeling from a severe financial crisis.
“This is a bad day for Greek sports,” Greek Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos told Greek SKAI radio. “In these times that we are going through, we need Greek athletes to succeed, people are expecting success. When such a blow comes, it saddens and disappoints everybody.”
Chondrokoukis, who was one of Greece’s best hopes for a medal in athletics, will undergo a B test to try to prove his innocence after testing positive for banned anabolic steroid Stanozolol, his father and coach said.
“Dimitris will not take part in the Olympic Games, leaving unfulfilled a dream of a lifetime,” Kyriakos Chondrokoukis said in a statement. “I will fight — we will fight — to respond and see exactly what happened. Not only for us as a family, but for the sports fans who have embraced Dimitris with so much love.”
Chondrokoukis, 24, won gold at this year’s World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, with a personal best of 2.33m. His personal best outdoors is 2.32m.
Stanozolol is designed to mimic the effects of the male sex hormone testosterone.
Capralos said the Greek Olympic Committee would not tolerate doping.
“We want to get many medals, however we want clean medals,” he said.
Chondrokoukis’ lawyer said he would never commit career “suicide” by taking banned substances days before the Olympics.
“How can it be possible that an athlete who is preparing for the Olympic Games, who won the world championship two months ago and who is being tested every week, has taken a substance that is also the most easily detectable in the banned substances’ list,” lawyer Yannis Marakakis said.
Greeks suffering brutal salary cuts and tax hikes as the country struggles to exit its fifth year of recession were stunned to hear more bad news from an event many hoped would bring them some relief.
“It’s shocking what’s happening with Greek athletes and it will make Greece look even worse abroad,” said Giorgos Mitsos, 71, an art teacher.
Greeks pride themselves on having invented the Games in 776 BC as a sports festival to honor the god Zeus in ancient Olympia. The first modern Games were held in a marble stadium in Athens in 1896.
Often decrying the commercialism and doping scandals that have dogged the modern Olympics for decades, some have even proposed hosting the Games permanently in Greece.
Others say it may not be a good idea now.
“Greece cannot become a permanent host for the Games because it lacks the money, the infrastructure and the know-how,” said Angeliki Thomopoulou, 31, a computer saleswoman. “I was so disappointed when I heard about the athletes, I felt ashamed for my country.”
Meanwhile, discus thrower Zoltan Kovago was given a two-year ban for a doping offense by sport’s highest court on Thursday and he will miss the Games.
Kovago won silver for Hungary at the 2004 Athens Olympics and was considered a medal contender in London as well.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Kovago “refused or failed without compelling justification” to provide a doping sample in August last year.
The court upheld an urgent appeal by athletics’ governing body after Hungarian anti-doping authorities cleared the athlete to continue competing.
The reasons behind the court panel’s verdict would be published within weeks, the court said.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
RSS