Bizarre twists and turns of Thanou's career

BEIJING (Reuters) - Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou has an unenviable Olympic record: 3 Olympic Games participation attempts, one ban, one withdrawal and one silver medal that may become gold.

In what may probably be the most unique Olympic career, Thanou, who on Sunday was barred from competing in the Beijing Games over an Athens 2004 Olympics doping scandal, has witnessed the full spectrum of emotions, both the highs and the lows.

She has done so without ever testing positive to drugs.

A naturally gifted sprinter, Thanou raced to a 100m second place finish at the Sydney 2000 Games, behind American Marion Jones, at the time the most dominant female sprinter of her generation at the peak of her career.

Thanou, now 33, had earlier won the 1999 World indoor championships but her silver medal at the Games blue riband event behind Jones, who had a five-medals haul at those Games, was a far greater achievement.

With the next edition of the Olympics to be staged in Athens four years later, Thanou had her eyes firmly set on gold. Nothing was to come between her and her moment of glory.

She won bronze at the 2001 Edmonton World Championships and was crowned 100m European champion in Munich a year later, setting the stage for her big race in Athens.

But on the eve of the Athens Olympics, only hours after she checked into the athletes village with fellow sprinter Costas Kenteris, drugs testers came calling.

The two were nowhere to be found. They claimed they had gone to their coach's house to relax and then crashed a motorcycle after finding out they were being sought for testing.

GOLD MEDAL

A farcical chain of events culminated with their withdrawal from the Games in disgrace. A two-year suspension followed, with Thanou insisting she was innocent.

She met the qualifying time for Beijing only weeks before the Games but the International Olympic Committee said her Beijing Games eligibility was still under question.

On Sunday it ended speculation, banning her from the Games before she even arrived, because "she has brought the Olympics into disrepute", the IOC said.

Her only comfort may be the possible awarding of Jones' gold medal, after the U.S. sprinter admitted to doping last year and saw her five medals taken from her.

The IOC is to decide in September whether to allocate her the medal, though given their four-year bitter row that has still to end, even that seems unlikely now.

Whatever her achievements may have been on the track, she will forever be remembered for all the wrong reasons off it.

(Editing by Nick Macfie)