PARIS, 26 December 2004 — It should have been a showcase year for the sport of athletics and the Athens Olympics did succeed in providing some great moments, but the specter of drug-taking cast a pall over the landscape.
The drugs-taking allegations made prior to the Games by BALCO supremo Victor Conte about the one true superstar of the sport Marion Jones that he was to repeat in devastating style on US TV in December were bad enough.
However when it was revealed that the two stars of Greek athletics, Sydney Olympics 200m champion Kostadinos Kenteris and women’s 100m silver medalist Ekaterini Thanou, had missed a mandatory dope test on the eve of the Games, it couldn’t have been any worse.
Both sprinters retired to respective hospital beds claiming they had been badly injured in a motorbike accident while speeding along to the test realizing they were in danger of missing it.
Despite this and following a belated appearance before the IOC they surrendered their right to appear at the Olympics and have now been charged by the sport’s governing body the IAAF with missing three tests.
The Greek public seemed to accept this slur on their honor calmly until the night of the men’s 200m final when with Justin Gatlin bidding for the 100 200 double they erupted into a cacophony of noise chanting “Hellas (Greece)” so that the race could not start.
After several minutes it did get underway and Gatlin finished third behind stablemate Shawn Crawford in a race that saw Namibian veteran Frankie Fredericks exit major championships with an honorable fourth.
The Greeks did not go away empty-handed as the astonishing Fani Halkia -who improved her personal best by six seconds during the season — beat a world class field by streets to take the women’s 400m hurdles and gave her unqualified support to her two compatriots.
“They (Kenteris and Thanou) were put against the wall and people imagined the wildest things,” she said.
With three Olympic champions including Hungarian duo discus champion Robert Fazekas and Hammer thrower Adrian Annus being stripped bare of their titles because of drug violations it was thankfully saved by some sterling performances on the track.
Moroccan prince of the track Hicham El Guerrouj was at last able to tear up the photograph of him falling in the 1500m final in 1996 and which he had left untouched after finishing second in 2000 as he won not only the 1500m but also the 5,000m as well edging out outstanding Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele.
“Its amazing to think that in Sydney I was crying tears of sadness and here I am crying tears of joy. I’m like a five year-old with a toy,” the 30-year-old said after the 1500m final.
His feat was matched by Britain’s Kelly Holmes, who after years of promising much but being frustrated by injuries at major championships won the 800m beating her former training partner and close friend Maria Mutola and then the 1500m to boot.
While Mutola hinted that Holmes had used her by coming and training alongside her — ‘She knew my weaknesses’ was the great Mozambican runner’s curt comment after leaving the track without congratulating Holmes — the British athlete’s victories were well received by the rest of the sports aficionados.
“I’ve been through so many ups and downs in my career. I’ve always thought the Olympics were the biggest thing and I used to think about it while I ran round the village aged 12 and now here I am,” said the 34-year-old.
Before the Olympics one would have bet the golden girl tag would have stuck to Paula Radcliff but for the flaxen-haired distance runner it was simply to be a case of one nightmare following another.
Hot favorite for the marathon she wilted in the early evening heat and eventually sank to the side of the road inconsolable in her grief. Her failure to finish the 10,000m a few days later was not as surprising as her decision to even try and run in it. “I am totally devastated because this is what my life has been all about,” the Briton said after her marathon despair, though she was to end the season on a high note winning the New York Marathon.
If her marathon was dramatic it was nothing compared to the men’s version when the leader Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima saw his chances of gold destroyed by the unwarranted attentions of defrocked Irish priest Cornelius Horan.
The Brazilian struggled on to take the bronze medal and later received a letter from Horan, though what he would prefer is for the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to award him a consolation gold medal.
