Thanou gets Olympic gold.

[bekayne]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

Tzekos, the coach, said that "we have been totally vindicated."

Ah yes

The appeals court upheld the conviction of the athletes' coach, Christos Tzekos, on charges of possession and storage of illegal substances, but acquitted him of a perjury charge relating to the motorcycle crash. The court reduced his initial sentence of 33 months in jail to 12 months, suspended for three years.

Complete vindication

[uakari]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

"The truth is always the winner in a court of law."

just ask DSK.

[PCSExponent]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

Eternal burning in hell is too good for this trio. IMOVHO, of course.

[Daisy]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

Vindication at last. I knew their lawyers could prove them innocent. You should all be ashamed of yourselves for doubting!!!

The truth is always the winner in a court of law.

"This is a vindication that we have been talking about and fighting for, for seven years," said Maria Kevga, the lawyer for Thanou and Tzekos. "We always believed we would get it in court."

Greek sprinters acquitted on appeal

[Marlow]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

AFAIAC, they don't exist.

ZACKLY (Zero Acceptance Concerning Kederis's Lying Yarn)

[Pego]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

They are both disgraced, their medals will always be asterisked (at least unofficially). AFAIAC, they don't exist. Just like the sprinter ahead of Thanou in Sydney, whose name escapes me anymore.

[PCSExponent]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

Not true. Sometimes victories are simply vacated and no one gets the Gold. That would be most appropriate in this case . . . IMO.

But there are no rules in place for retroactive sanctioning of results, unless there's proof/admission of PED use dating back to the competition in question. We all know Thanou was doping in 2000, but as it is, the rules make it clear she should get the gold.
I'm all in favour of life-time bans + expunging ALL former results by PED users. However, these are not the current rules; to my mind, Thanou should be in jail (for perjury), but with the gold medal to keep her company on lonely nights. Too bad she and KKK got away with suspended sentences which are not likely to be changed on appeal :evil:

[Marlow]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

The fact is that since the gold medal was left without an owner, following Marion Jones being scratched, Thanou had to be awarded that on the grounds of being the silver medallist. Apart from speculation, there is nothing substantial that weighs against her over her performance in Sydney. So there was no other way than award the medal to her. Simple things, there has got to be a winner in every single athletics competition.

Not true. Sometimes victories are simply vacated and no one gets the Gold. That would be most appropriate in this case . . . IMO.

[72]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

The thought that these two infamous liars and druggies are not in prison and Thanou may get some medal makes one heartily sick.

[Flumpy]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

Maybe nothing can stop her getting the Olympic gold but at least she's been proven a liar.

“The court finds that this accident never occurred,” presiding judge Dimitris Lefkos :mrgreen:

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_ar ... 011_390368

I never thought we'd see the day when this came to court. Shame the sentence is suspended but it's better than nothing.

[lsabre]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

Picking up on that article on the link just above:

First, it's not really sure whether the attack carried out on journalist Philippos Syrigos was assossiated with the case of Thanou and Kenderis, he was apparently involved in other 'hot' cases at the time as well. However, not reputed to be among the 'best boys' around himself.

Second, the motorcycle the two sprinters rode in that accident belonged to their coach Christos Tzekos while, on the other hand, Kenderis was also late Socratis Giolias's best man as concerns that "close relationship with the two sprinters".

I knew Socratis since his 16 and we're good friends with his family, he was an (international U20) race walker and helped him as interpreter in his early days as sports journalist. None of us know what he got involved himself into to suffer such an end, which was very controversially branded "a terrorist attack" by the police. He was effectively executed mafia-style as he was shot some 17 times with shotguns from three different directions around him.

His youngest brother, Pericles, is the husband and coach of two-times 1500m Olympian Konstantina Efentaki (4:05.65).

[26mi235]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

The linked article has some major charges in it. Included is testimony that there was a call that there would be a motorcycle accident

"Syrigos is on record via his writings that he received a call on the fateful night of August 12, 2004, where a source close to the athletes told him that there would be a motorcycle accident later that evening. The accident did occur about two hours later, around midnight."

He was violently attacked a couple months later.

http://www.hellenicathletes.com/news.php?news_id=571

[PCSExponent]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

In much the same way that the US pursued Marion Jones with a federal investigation, wouldn't it be great if the Greeks did the same to Thanou?

After all, they must be embarrassed by here accession to Olympic gold. However, I'm not holding my breath....

Thanou is facing criminal charges, and neither hers nor Jones' were drug-use charges (nor should they be, FCOL), but rather charges for lying to federal agents/local authorities, in both cases with quite a bit of 'side-decorations', especially in Jones' case where the actual main dish was a fraud charge.

[shivfan]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

there is no right answer to this mess but making lying cheats like Thanou Olympic gold medalists is the worst possible resolution

Gotta agree. What is "technically" appropriate here is just wildly WRONG on pretty much every other level. If that gold medal is genuinely "deserved" then we have to admit that it actually isn't worth a thing.

In much the same way that the US pursued Marion Jones with a federal investigation, wouldn't it be great if the Greeks did the same to Thanou?

After all, they must be embarrassed by here accession to Olympic gold. However, I'm not holding my breath....

[GDAWG]

Re: Thanou gets Olympic gold.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to the 4 x 400 Meter Relay medals from Athens.