Topic: News: The Greek Doping Scandal

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Greek prosecutor files charges against 25 people in weightlifting doping scandal

ATHENS, Greece: A Greek prosecutor on Tuesday filed misdemeanor charges against 25 people in a doping scandal involving the country's weightlifting team.

Eleven of the team's 14 weightlifters tested positive for a banned substance during a spot doping check in March, and the results were announced in April. The scandal has made it unlikely that the Greek team will participate in the Beijing Olympics.

Prosecutor Andreas Karaflos ended his investigation into the scandal on Tuesday, bringing nine misdemeanor charges against those involved, including the 11 athletes and their coaching and medical team.

Former head coach Christos Iakovou faces five charges, the most serious of which is administering a banned substance to the athletes. If convicted of all counts, he could face a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Iakovou has insisted he did not knowingly give the team banned substances, and has blamed a faulty batch of diet supplements from China.

The 60-year-old Iakovou is one of Greece's most successful coaches, with his lifters winning 12 Olympic medals, including five gold, since the 1992 Barcelona Games.

A pharmacist in Athens and a man who allegedly imported the supplement from China have also been charged in the case.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Weightlifting. Former Greek coach, athletes charged

Greece's former weightlifting coach, 11 lifters and another 13 people were charged yesterday with involvement in a major doping scandal that could result in the Greek squad being banned from the Beijing Olympics, Agence France-Presse reported. Former coach Christos Iakovou, a Greek sports hero who resigned his post after the affair broke last month, was charged as the brains behind the import, treatment and use of a banned steroid on the athletes, the report said. The 11 athletes included several members of the squad scheduled to participate in the Olympics.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Greeks involved in major doping scandal

ATHENS: Greece's former weightlifting coach, 11 lifters and another 13 people were charged yesterday with involvement in a major doping scandal that could see the Greek squad banned from the Beijing Olympics, a justice source said.

Former coach Christos Iakovou, (pic) a Greek sporting hero who resigned his post after the affair broke last month, was charged as the brains behind the import, treatment and use of a banned steroid on the athletes, the source said.

Iakovou faces a maximum five-year prison term if convicted.

The eleven athletes, including several members of the squad scheduled to participate in the Beijing Olympics before they failed doping tests last month, were also charged and face two-year prison terms in addition to sport bans.

Prosecutor Andreas Karaflos also charged Iakovou's assistant coaches and a team doctor with complicity in the case, along with an Athens pharmacist and a vitamin importer in the central city of Larissa.

Iakovou has blamed a Chinese drugs manufacturer for the controversy, claiming that a batch of vitamins tainted with steroids was sent to Greece by mistake and given to the lifters.

The Greek authorities have requested tests on the athletes' second sample.

The illegal steroid has not been officially identified pending the results of the second sample tests.

The International Weightlifting Federation is to rule on whether the Greek team should be banned from the Beijing Games where they would normally be among the favourites.

This is the second controversy to engulf the Greek weightlifting team, which has brought home an astonishing 12 medals, five of them gold, in the last four Olympics under Iakovou.

During the Athens 2004 Games, Greece's bronze medal winner in the 62kg category Leonidas Sabanis was thrown out of the competition after tests revealed double the permitted amount of testosterone in his system.

[AlekoKouva]

Its all ****..nobody is facing any real charges...political parties in greece are trying to gain favor with the population for the next elections...greek politics are stupid...they can take anything and make it into a big story so they can gain something from it...just liek the fires in greece last summer...im still dieing to kno what the got tested for....they jsut wont say

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Greek weightlifters face criminal charges over doping
By Barney Spender, Editing by Karolos Grohmann

ATHENS, May 20 (Reuters) - Eleven members of the Greek national weightlifting team who tested positive for banned substances in March are among 25 people charged in connection with the case, a court official said on Tuesday.

The official told Reuters that prosecutor Andreas Karaflos had ended his investigation into the doping scandal by charging the 25 -- including former coach Christos Iacovou and his staff, the supplier and the medical team -- with nine misdemeanors.

"Athletes are charged with use of banned substances. Coach Iacovou is charged with instigating the use of banned substances by athletes, as well as instigating the production and distribution of banned substances," said the official.

"Other members of the coaching team are also charged with the possession and distribution of banned substances. The pharmacist and supplier also face similar charges."

"If convicted, the accused could face up to five years in jail, plus fines," the official added.

The weightlifters tested positive in an out-of-competition test in March with the results announced in early April.

Iacovou stepped down as coach because of the scandal and Greece is now likely to be barred from sending a weightlifting team to the Beijing Olympics.

However, it is unlikely the athletes or officials will be sent to jail because sentences for misdemeanours in Greece are usually suspended or can be covered by paying a fine.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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China removes licences from dope-trading pharmacies

BEIJING, June 6 (Reuters) - China has removed licences from nine pharmacies in Anshan, Liaoning Province, after they were caught selling banned performance-enhancing substances, state media reported on Friday.

China has vowed to eradicate the use of banned substances ahead of August's Beijing Olympics after several high profile doping cases involving Chinese athletes in the 1990s and early part of this century.

The action was a result of investigations by State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) officials that also took in Beijing and five Olympic co-host cities, SFDA spokesman Yan Jianying told Xinhua news agency.

Anshan was at the centre of a major doping scandal in August 2006 when 450 vials of erythropoietin (EPO), testosterone and steroids were discovered during a raid on a training camp being used by the city's sports school.

Staff were caught injecting the teenaged students with banned substances in preparation for provincial games.
Two coaches and eight athletes received bans while the headmaster of the school, Shao Huibin, lost his job and was stripped of his Communist Party membership.

John Fahey, president of the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA), met with SFDA officials when he visited China in April and said he was impressed with the progress they had made.

"There is no doubt that there is a strong will in China to have a clean Olympics," he said.

In April, Shanghai-based Auspure Biotechnology was blamed by the Greek weightlifting team for adding banned substances to nutritional supplements resulting in positive tests for 11 athletes.

China said the company was not licensed to produce pharmaceutical products but promised to investigate the matter.

Liaoning province is renowned in China for producing top athletes but has also been at the centre of other doping scandals.

Controversial athletics coach Ma Junren, once employed by the Anshan sports school, produced a string of world class distance runners in the province in the 1990s.

Ma and six of his runners were dropped from the Chinese team for the 2000 Sydney Olympics after pre-Games screening revealed abnormal results in blood tests.

Another school in the capital of the province, Shenyang, was caught doping students in 2002.

China enacted an anti-doping code in February 2004 which allows for criminal prosecution of drug cheats and their suppliers.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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IWF suspends 11 Greek weightlifters for 2 years over doping scandal

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -Eleven Greek weightlifters have been suspended for two years after testing positive for a banned steroid.

The International Weightlifting Federation says Greece will still be able to send a team of four weightlifters - three men and a woman - to the Beijing Olympics.

The IWF said Tuesday the decision was made by its executive board last Friday.

Eleven of the Greek team's 14 weightlifters tested positive for the steroid methyltrienolone during a March out-of-competition test in Athens, and the results were announced in April. The athletes have not been named.

Last month, a Greek prosecutor brought misdemeanor charges against the 11 athletes, Olympic weightlifting coach Christos Iakovou and another 13 people.

Iakovou was suspended after the doping scandal broke. He has denied knowingly giving the team banned substances, and blamed a faulty batch of Chinese diet supplements.

Iakovou, 60, is one of Greece's most successful coaches, with his lifters winning 12 Olympic medals, five gold, since the 1992 Barcelona Games.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Greek weightlifters suspended for doping

ATHENS, Greece: Eleven Greek weightlifters have been suspended for two years after testing positive for a banned steroid.

The International Weightlifting Federation said Tuesday that Greece will still be able to send a team of four weightlifters — three men and a woman — to the Beijing Olympics.

The IWF said the decision was made by its executive board last Friday.

Eleven of the Greek team's 14 weightlifters tested positive for the steroid methyltrienolone during a March out-of-competition test in Athens, and the results were announced in April. The athletes have not been named.

The IWF said the Greek weightlifting federation was also sanctioned, but gave no details.

A Greek federation official said the IWF fined the federation $387,000. He was speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to comment on the affair.

The official said the four Greek athletes for Beijing would be selected "in the next few days."

He said the weightlifters would "definitely" include Nikos Kourtidis, 22, one of the three members of the national team who did not test positive in March.

Last month, a Greek prosecutor filed misdemeanor charges against the 11 athletes, Olympic weightlifting coach Christos Iakovou and 13 other people.

Iakovou was suspended after the doping scandal broke. He has denied knowingly giving the team banned substances, and blamed a faulty batch of Chinese diet supplements.

Ten of the athletes accused of doping have backed Iakovou, but one female weightlifter has threatened to take legal action against anyone found responsible for giving her steroids, allegedly without her knowledge.

Iakovou, 60, is one of Greece's most successful coaches, with his lifters winning 12 Olympic medals, five gold, since the 1992 Barcelona Games.