Issue No. 13363

 

Greek officials have accepted that they made a mistake by allowing disgraced hurdler Fani Halkia (photo) to take part in the Olympic torch relay for the Vancouver 2010 Games.

 

 Halkia, a gold medalist in Athens in 2004 but thrown out of the Beijing Games last year for failing a doping test, was one of ten former Greek Olympic starts that ran a relay before the torch was handed to Vancouver representatives in Athens.

 

Olympic Torch Relay Commission president Spyros Zannias said Fani Halkia was proposed to carry the flame by the Greek Olympic winners’ association, which said it had made an innocent mistake. Zannias said his commission “was wrong to accept the proposal.”

 

The Greek Association of Olympic winners, who had included Halkia on a list of proposed torchbearers sent to the Hellenic Olympic Committee, said the blunder was down to human error.

 

“This is an honest mistake and nothing else,” association president Giorgos Sigalas told Reuters. “It was my mistake for not checking the names of the list that was drafted here and was sent to the committee. “The Hellenic Olympic Committee did not spot it either but at the end of the day the list was from us so I accept full responsibility.” The International Olympic Committee said Halkia’s participation was “inappropriate and a regrettable mistake.” “The IOC is not responsible for choosing the torchbearers. For the Greek leg of the relay it is the responsibility of the (Greek) Olympic committee,” it said in a statement.

 

“People who have had their Olympic Games accreditation removed and/or who have been found guilty of doping offenses should not be permitted to run as a torchbearer.”

 

 

ATHENS NEWS 16/11/2009, page: 40