Name Athanasia Tsoumeleka Sport Athletics Role Olympic athlete | Event(s) 20 km walk Weight 48 kg Personal best(s) 1:29.12 | |
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Born 2 January 1982 (age 42) ( 1982-01-02 ) Olympic medals Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's 20 kilometres walk Similar Fani Chalkia, Olimpiada Ivanova, Hrysopiyi Devetzi | ||
Athens 2004 olympic games athanasia tsoumeleka women s 20 km walk
Athanasia Tsoumeleka (Greek: Αθανασία Τσουμελέκα, [aθanaˈsia tsumeˈleka], born January 2, 1982) is a Greek race walker, who won a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Contents
- Athens 2004 olympic games athanasia tsoumeleka women s 20 km walk
- Olympic games athens 2004 athanasia tsoumeleka gold medal 20km race walk women
- References
Until 2003 Tsoumeleka was a largely unknown athlete, and she only finished seventh at the World Championships that year. To everybody's great surprise, she won the Olympic gold medal race held in her own country ahead of Russia's Olimpiada Ivanova (silver) and Australia's Jane Saville (bronze).
In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, she finished 9th in 20 km walk. After the end of the Games, a urine sample she had given on August 6 tested positive for erythropoietin, when subjected to a new test for CERA. Tsoumeleka expressed doubts about the validity of the procedure, and then announced her immediate retirement from the sport. On April 29, 2009 it was announced that Tsoumeleka had tested positive for CERA in a test on a blood sample provided during the 2008 Olympics. Her "B" sample also tested positive for CERA. On November 18, 2009 the International Olympic Committee decided to disqualify Tsoumeleka from the Women's 20 km Walk event of the 2008 Olympic Games where she placed 9th.