ATHENS, Aug 11 (AFP) - Costas Georgakopoulos, who was 16-times Greek discus champion and competed in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, will spearhead the Athens Olympics' drive against doping.
Georgakopoulos, 41, is head of the anti-doping laboratory situated next to the main Olympic stadium, where some 3,500 drugs tests will be conducted during the Games, which run from August 13 to 29.
"The Olympic Games are the greatest thing an athlete can experience," he told AFP in an interview.
"In Los Angeles, the spectators were supportive and welcoming, both during the competition and outside."
Georgakopoulos finished 9th in the discus final in Los Angeles, with a throw of 60.3 metres.
"Sport is very important for a human being. It has not only to do with muscles but also with psychology, and requires a balance between logic and technique and emotion," he said.
"Competition recharges my batteries," he added.
Born July 14, 1963, Georgakopoulos was on the Greek national track and field team from 1979 to 1992 and was the national discus record holder for 19 years, with a throw of 62.58 metres in 1983 in Casablanca, Morocco.
In 1981, he went back to school and studied chemical engineering at Athens Technical University. For his doctor's thesis, he chose a subject that would allow him to combine sport and career: expert system computer programming on mass spectrometry analysis of polymers.
Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique that is used to identify unknown compounds, to quantify known compounds, and to elucidate the structure and chemical properties of molecules, according to the American Society for Mass Spectrometry.
It can detect a compound even in very minute concentrations.
In 1988, Georgakopoulos began working in mass spectrometry for the Athens Doping Control Laboratory. Two years later, the lab earned International Olympic Committee (IOC) accreditation for drug testing.
Officially, he quit the competitive arena in 1992 but continued to compete in "national discus throwing competitions once or twice a year".
"My technique was very good, but my muscles had become weaker. The load passed from the muscles to the bones," he said, explaining that caused him to develop a lesion to the spine.
In 1995, three years after he formally retired, he won his 16th Greek title for the discus before calling it quits.
Leaving competition "made me really sad."
During his long sports career, he "saw a lot of people using drugs," he told AFP.
But, he stressed: "I am against the use of drugs. It eventually destroys the good feeling people have for sports."