Athanasia Tsoumeleka

Career
Athanasia Tsoumeleka
nation	Greece Greece
birthday	2nd January 1982
place of birth	Preveza
status	unknown

Athanasia Tsoumeleka ( Greek Αθανασία Τσουμελέκα , born January 2, 1982 in Preveza ) is a former Greek walker and Olympic champion .

Already in 2001, at the age of 19, she became vice European champion in the junior division in 10 km with a time of 46: 29.20 minutes.

2003 won the gold medal in 1: 33.55 h at the U23 European Championships in 20 km walking . When she first started in the senior division, she was seventh at the 2003 World Championships in Paris / Saint-Denis .

At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens she won the gold medal in 20 km in front of her own audience, ahead of Olimpiada Iwanowa (RUS) and Jane Saville (AUS).

Despite being injured, she decided to start at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki . A few kilometers from the finish in a safe third place, she was surprisingly disqualified. This disqualification was later heavily criticized by many, because as an Olympic champion she always had a camera next to her and no rule violation was noticed on the television pictures.

In 2006 she took a baby break. At the 2007 World Championships in Osaka , she was eliminated.

Shortly before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing , in which Tsoumeleka finished ninth, a doping test had been carried out, which indicated an intake of erythropoietin (EPO). When this was announced in January 2009, Tsoumeleka announced her resignation. On February 2, 2009, the Greek Athletics Federation announced that the B sample confirmed the result. As a result, a two-year ban was imposed for violating the doping regulations and the result at the Olympic Games was canceled. In addition, Tsoumeleka was one of the athletes who, at the end of April 2009, found the EPO preparation CERA during follow-up tests on doping samples taken during the Olympic Games in Beijing. She was later banned for two years until January 2011.

Athanasia Tsoumeleka is 1.57 m tall and weighs 47 kg.