Konstantinos Kenteris

Konstantinos "Kostas" Kenteris ( Greek Κωνσταντίνος Κεντέρης , Konstandínos Kendéris, also Konstadínos Kedéris transcribed ; born July 11, 1973 in Mytilini ) is a Greek athlete and Olympic champion .

Previous career

Kenteris specialized early on in the 200 and 400 meter sprint courses . It was not until 1999 that the sports student took part in a major international competition for the first time. To everyone's surprise, he was able to qualify for the final over 200 meters at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney . He won the race as a blatant underdog in 20.09 s ahead of Darren Campbell (GBR) and Ato Boldon (TRI). At the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton , Kenteris repeated the victory in this discipline in a time of 20.04 s. Also at the European Championships in Munich in 2002 , he won the title over 200 meters in the annual world record of 19.85 s, which also meant a European Championship record.

Outside of these big title fights, Kenteris practically never took part in major competitions, which gave rise to rumors about doping . This earned him the nickname "Invisible Adonis ". Also to talk about was his early departure from the 2003 World Championships in Paris due to a heel injury .

2004 Olympic Games

At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens , Kenteris was considered the greatest Greek hope for a gold medal , which is why the 200-meter final was the first of all competitions to sell out. Even rumors, Kenteris should be the last torch bearer, the Olympic flame in the Olympic Stadium ignite.

When he was officially in Chicago for training purposes before the games , he could not undergo an ordered doping control because he had returned to Greece early or, according to another version, because he had not even been to the USA .

On the evening of August 12, 2004, Kenteris and the Greek 100-meter runner Ekaterini Thanou were to be summoned again for a doping control in the Olympic village . The two athletes could not meet this because they were allegedly on their way home to pick up "personal belongings". The Greek sports official Manolis Kolybadis informed the Greek television broadcaster Alpha TV on August 15 that he had told the two athletes about the impending inspection when they entered the Olympic village, whereupon they panicked ("they were like scared pigeons").

Kenteris and Thanou also let the two hours allowed them to catch up on the test pass unused, as they had meanwhile had to go to hospital because of a motorcycle accident. According to a communiqué from the hospital, Kentéris had suffered whiplash and leg injuries.

However, inconsistencies in this story soon became known

• nothing of the accident was noticed at the kiosk immediately next to the alleged accident site
• the police had not received an accident report
• there is a hospital near the scene of the accident, but the two athletes went to a hospital in another part of the city.

On August 12, IOC President Jacques Rogge convened the internal disciplinary committee, which included three IOC executive members Thomas Bach , Serhij Bubka and Denis Oswald . The commission wanted to hear the two athletes on the morning of August 13th. However, since Kenteris and Thanou were able to present a medical certificate, the questioning was postponed to Monday, August 16. Since the proven, deliberate refusal of a doping control is considered a positive control, this would have resulted in a two-year ban and the immediate exclusion of the athletes concerned from the Olympic Games.

On August 14, the Greek National Olympic Committee decided after a heated debate 5: 1 against the vote of its President Lambis Nikolaou, Kenteris and Thanou not immediately to expel the Greek team, but only suspended the athletes until their hearing on August 16. This interview was then postponed to August 18. On August 17, when he was released from the hospital, Kenteris said he would refute all allegations in front of the IOC commission the next day and go to the start. On August 18, after the questioning, however, Kenteris announced that he would not compete "out of a sense of responsibility" and that he would also part with his trainer Christos Tzekos .

Association acquittal and judicial conviction

Seven months after the scandal at the Olympic Games in Athens, a five-member arbitration panel from the Greek Athletics Association ( SEGAS ), with one vote against, granted both Kenteris and Ekaterini Thanou provisionally free of the charge of doping. According to a statement by the association, the two Greek athletes were able to prove during the numerous hearings that they had not been properly ordered to take a doping test by those responsible at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). In contrast, the board unanimously imposed a four-year ban on coach Christos Tzekos. He had been informed about the doping controls and had failed to ensure that his protégés also appear there. "It's a tough decision for a man who has worked in the stadium all his life, but I accept it," said Christos Tzekos, who was acquitted in the same judgment for lack of evidence of drug trafficking charges. The published statement said that Kostas Kenteris and Ekaterini Thanou had not been informed of the doping test scheduled for August 12 and had only found out about it from the media. The duo's motorcycle accident on the evening in question, which is suspected to have been staged, was not commented on in the statement of the arbitral tribunal.

The world association IAAF did not accept the reasons for the judgment and appealed to the International Court of Justice for Sports (CAS). On February 14, 2006, CAS presiding judge, Canadian Yves Fortier, withdrew from the trial. He justified the surprising step with constant attacks by the athletes and the Greek federation against him. Konstantinos Kenteris and Katerina Thanou finally admitted before the CAS that they had missed three doping tests between June 27 and August 12, 2004. This confirmed the IAAF's two-year ban, which expired on December 22, 2006.

A trial against Kenteris and Thanou for perjury in a Greek court originally scheduled for 2007 has been postponed twice and was due to take place in February 2009. In May 2011 Thanou and Kenteris were sentenced to 31 months probation for perjury, their trainers to 33 months and six doctors and two "accident witnesses" to at least six months.

Web links

• Konstantinos Kenteris website (Greek)
• Konstadinos Kedéris in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Kostas Kenteris in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Footnotes

1. ↑ Netzeitung : Kenteris and Thanou doping case closed ( Memento of December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), June 26, 2006
2. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung : Trial against Thanou and Kenteris postponed , September 24, 2007
3. ^ ORF : Trial against Thanou and Kenteris postponed again , June 2008
4. ^ FAZ : Thanou and Kenteris - Legendary Escape Behavior , FAZ, May 2011