ATHENS (AFP) - Greek sprinters Kostadinos Kenteris and Katerina Thanou have been charged for missing three mandatory doping tests and faking a motorbike crash to keep testers at bay before the Athens Olympics, legal sources said.
Kenteris, a Greek hero after winning gold in the 200m at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, and Thanou, silver medallist in the women's 100m four years ago, withdrew from the Games after missing a drugs test on the eve of the Olympics and spending time in hospital to recover from their alleged motorbike accident.
Prosecutors have also charged them with avoiding earlier doping tests when they were training in Tel Aviv and Chicago, respectively in July and August.
The pair's former controversial coach Christos Tzekos has been charged with importing, possessing and producing banned substances. Tzekos, whom both athletes dropped after the Olympics, runs a nutrititional supplements business in Athens.
The Kenteris-Thanou affair was one of the biggest doping scandals of the Athens Olympics.
Both athletes are likely to be fined if found guilty and a ruling against them would weigh heavily on any decision the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) might make for missing the drug test.
They claimed they never took banned substances and that they had the accident when rushing back to the Olympic village to undergo the test. Kenteris claimed that neither Tzekos nor anybody from the Greek Olympic team informed him and Thanou they were wanted for the test.
Doctors and witnesses were also charged with making false statements about the alleged motorbike accident.
A hospital statement issued after the two athletes were admitted said Kenteris suffered from a lesion to the head. Thanou was said to have bruises on the abdomen, the right thigh and the adductors of her right leg.
A forensic surgeon who examined the pair found no evidence for such injuries.
"The accident was fake or didn't happen at all," a legal source close to the invetigation told AFP in August, one week after the inquiry was launched.
Kenteris, who had been originally chosen to light the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony, said on November 1 he was looking forward to facing charges as a chance to prove his innocence.
"If a decision is taken to have charges filed against me, I will accept it gladly," Kenteris told Greek private television station Alter.
"A prosecution means that the case will be cleared ... I want to go to the end and then we'll see who's right and who isn't," he added.
11/18/2004 - 13:14 GMT - AFP