Topic: News: The Greek Doping Scandal

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

"Neither the athletes nor the team officials and pharmacologists or Mr. Iakovou, knew that the dietary supplements being taken contained any banned substances," Iakovou said in a statement -- adding that he was "devastated" by the allegations.

Wow, they have team pharmacologists? Doesn't that sort of tell you the whole story?

[Jim Hooper]

Well, that and the fact that they were admittedly ordering mass quantities of "supplements" from somebody in Shanghai.   I'm not sure what's the bigger joke:  the excuse or the absurd IWF "system" itself.  But I am sure who will make a boatload of money off the incident.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Greek police raid weightlifters' rooms
By Karolos Grohmann, edited by  Ken Ferris

ATHENS, April 8 (Reuters) - Greek police said on Tuesday that officers had raided the rooms of the national team's weightlifters searching for drugs but had found none.

The raid came just days after 11 squad members tested positive for banned substances and was part of an investigation into the affair that has stunned Greeks.

About 30 police officers and a prosecutor entered the offices of the Greek weightlifting federation and the rooms of athletes at the national sports centre in Agios Kosmas, along Athens' southern coastline.

"The operation was undertaken to see whether there were any remains of the substances the athletes had taken and then tested positive but nothing was found," a police official said on condition of anonymity. "The investigation is continuing."

The federation has blamed a mistake at a Chinese factory which it said shipped legal nutritional substances that had been accidentally spiked with banned ingredients.

"The prosecutor visited our offices and we handed over all documents (related to this case)," Weightlifting Federation general secretary Vassilis Gerakaris told reporters.

"The federation will do whatever is necessary to shed light on this case," he added.

The federation announced on Friday that 11 of the 14 team members tested had provided positive A samples and the squad could face expulsion from the Beijing Olympics in August if their B samples also came back positive.

The Chinese company said in a letter of apology that a number of banned toxic and cancer-causing substances had been accidentally added in the latest batch of supplements.

Under the World Anti-Doping Agency code the athletes face a two-year ban if they are first-time offenders and their B samples are positive. The case has triggered a judicial investigation, led by an Athens prosecutor, and has shocked Greeks who have held the country's weightlifting team in high esteem.

The federation has temporarily suspended head coach Christos Iacovou, credited with a big medals haul at recent Olympics. Iacovou is set to testify before a special sports ministry committee on Wednesday on the affair. Since the 1992 Barcelona Games, the first under Iacovou, Greece has won 12 Olympic weightlifting medals, including five golds. Before Barcelona it had not won a weightlifting medal since the 1904 Games.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Greek weightlifting facility, pharmacy raided in doping investigation

ATHENS, Greece: Narcotics officers searched a weightlifting facility and a pharmacy Tuesday as part of a doping investigation of Greek weightlifters.

Police said the spot inspections were requested by a prosecutor leading the doping investigation and involved officials from the Health Ministry's drug regulator, the National Organization for Medicines.

The scandal involving 11 athletes has thrown the Greek weightlifting team's preparations for the Beijing Olympics into turmoil.

Greece coach Christos Iakovou was suspended after the initial test results were announced last Friday. The World Anti-Doping Agency is expected to confirm the results later this week.

Greek media have reported that traces of an anabolic steroid, an opiate and an estrogen suppressor were found in the samples.

Iakovou has blamed the test results on a faulty batch of dietary supplements from China. He is expected to appear Wednesday before an investigation committee set by the Greek Weightlifting Federation.

"The committee continues its investigation into this serious issue," federation secretary Vassilis Gerekaris said. "The Greek Weightlifting Federation will provide every assistance to authorities in this case."

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

On Monday, Sports Minister Yiannis Ioannidis said it was "not likely" Greek weightlifters would compete in the Beijing Olympics, but that the International Weightlifting Federation would make the final decision.

The names of the male and female weightlifters who tested positive have not been announced pending confirmation of the out-of-competition test from samples taken March 7.

The tests were conducted in Athens by WADA, on orders of the IWF.

On Monday, Iakovou's lawyer released documents from Shanghai-based drug maker Auspure Biotechnology Co. Ltd, and a letter from the company admitting it sent the wrong supplements to Greece.

Staff at the company would not comment when contacted by phone Tuesday.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

why did the IWF give orders to go get Greece?

This has been pointed out to me by others, and I have to agree in retrospect that it is a good point. WADA is supposed to be independent from the IWF, so it IS a good question to ask why they are taking orders about who to test and when from the IWF. I am interested in the answer.

It is certainly possible that more is going on here than is apparent.

[Shaun Le Conte]

I wouldn't take the statement from the original article that the IWF is issuing orders to WADA as fact. That is only according to the Greek federation. Their honesty is already in doubt.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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China doubts role in Greek weightlifting scandal
Reporting by Ian Ransom, additional reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Justin Palmer and Trevor Huggins

BEIJING, April 9 (Reuters) - China on Wednesday expressed doubt over reports that a local factory was behind positive doping tests for 11 members of Greece's national weightlifting team, but said it had launched a probe into the matter.

On Monday, a Greek Weightlifting Federation official told Reuters that a mix-up at a Chinese factory was responsible for 11 of the Greek squad testing positive for banned substances.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the factory had sent a letter of apology for mistakenly adding a number of banned toxic and cancer-causing substances to nutritional supplements it had provided the team for months.

The lawyer for the Greek team's suspended head coach Christos Iacovou also said he had also received the apology letter.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu expressed doubt over the reports but said China had launched a probe into the allegations in a statement on the ministry's Web site (www.fmprc.gov.cn) on Wednesday.
"According to our initial understanding, the true situation is not compatible with the foreign media reports," Jiang said.

Chinese authorities, however, were continuing investigations and were "willing to cooperate with Greece to get to the truth of the situation," Jiang said.

The issue also cropped up during talks between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president John Fahey and Chinese officials.

"The Chinese officials indicated that as soon as they had news...they were prepared to say something public, and I encouraged them to do so," Fahey told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.

"I'm pleased that the Chinese authorities have promised to thoroughly investigate the matter."

The case has triggered a judicial investigation, led by an Athens prosecutor, and has shocked Greeks who have held the country's weightlifting team in high esteem.

Under the current World Anti-Doping Agency code, the athletes face a two-year ban if they are first-time offenders.

The Greek weightlifting federation has temporarily suspended coach Iacovou, credited with big weightlifting medals hauls at recent Olympics.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Doping search widened
Prosecutor leads raid on weightlifters’ training facilities and pharmacy

Police raided the training facilities of the Greek weightlifting team and a pharmacy in Athens yesterday as part of the judicial investigation into the doping scandal in which the national team has become embroiled.

Less than 24 hours after being instructed to head the probe, prosecutor Andreas Karaflos led a team of some 30 police officers and inspectors from the National Pharmaceutical Organization (EOF) in a raid on the Aghios Cosmas sports center in southern Athens, where Greek weightlifters train.

Officers also searched the athletes’ lockers and rooms in an effort to find any evidence that would help the investigation into why 11 members of the national weightlifting team failed doping tests.

The search reportedly revealed links to a pharmacy in the downtown neighborhood of Kolonos, where another raid was conducted in the afternoon.

Sources said that officers seized 870 capsules and 500 milligrams of an unidentified powder. There was equipment at the pharmacy that could be used to fill the capsules, sources added.

Karaflos also visited the headquarters of the Greek Weightlifting Federation and spoke to its president Nikos Skiadis, who is expected to give evidence in the probe. The prosecutor took away with him documents relating to doping tests conducted by the federation.

Karaflos is expected to ask the police’s electronic crime squad to check whether an e-mail reportedly sent by a company in China, which claims it mistakenly supplied tainted food supplements to the weightlifting team, is genuine.

A lawyer for the team’s suspended coach, Christos Iakovou, has claimed that the Chinese company has accepted full responsibility for the Greek athletes being supplied with the wrong product and testing positive for steroids.

Iakovou was due to be questioned yesterday but this was postponed. Iakovou is expected to submit a written statement today claiming that he never gave the athletes banned substances.