Word: thanou
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Dates: during 2004-2004
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...only source of our lingering bad feeling. The doping controversy that marred the start of the Games knocked the wind out of us. Although a record 22 athletes from around the world were disqualified for doping violations, it was our two star sprinters - Konstantinos Kenteris and Katerina Thanou - who got the lion's share of the bad press. And they were never proved to be dopers. O.K., they knew the rules about turning up for drug tests, they violated them, and they deserved to be punished. But International Olympic Committee officials posed triumphantly for the press with Kenteris' and Thanou...
Unfortunately, nothing is ever quite that easy in Athens. The evening before the ceremony, Greece's two most celebrated athletes--200-m Olympic champion Konstantinos Kenteris and 100-m silver medalist Katerina Thanou--missed their mandatory drug tests and were suspended by the Hellenic Olympic Committee (H.O.C.) pending an International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) investigation. For Greeks, it was a shocking front-page horror story. I.O.C. officials say notices were posted on the athletes' doors in the Olympic Village alerting them to the 6:15 p.m. test, and that doctors waited more than an hour before declaring them no-shows...
...Greece, a country of 11 million people and two Olympic celebrities--Kenteris and Thanou--the absurdity and timing of the incident was a cruel blow. It's been a tough battle for Greeks to shake their reputation as the reprobate relatives of the global family, and just when the world seemed convinced that the country was competent, Kenteris and Thanou ensnared themselves in what may be history's most elaborate lost-homework story. Kenteris and Thanou have missed tests before (once they were in another country when the people with cups came calling) and suspicion has followed the Greek track...
...really, of course. To the rest of the world, Thanou and Kenteris are just two more hard-to-pronounce names, and if it turns out Greece does have a couple of high-profile dopers on its squad--well, who doesn't? If nothing else, the scandal added some suspense to the opening ceremony, since word had already leaked out that Thanou was going to be one of the final torch bearers and Kenteris was going to light the Olympic flame. Instead, Nikos Kaklamanakis, a gold medalist in sailing, got the honor. He touched his small flame to a giant, deus...
...land, and entered the annals of the sporting greats. Not every ending in the Games' first week was so happy. The Greeks wanted to move beyond the embarrassment of the missed drug tests (and mysterious, possibly staged, motorcycle accident) of sprinters Konstantinos Kenteris and Katerina Thanou. Both quit the Games before the i.o.c. could kick them out. It seemed time to concentrate on questions of a purely sporting nature: When would Britain finally join the rest of the big countries and win its first gold? (Answer: Day 7, when cyclist Chris Hoy won the men's 1-km track time...