Athanasia Tsoumeleka
Greek racewalker / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Athanasia Tsoumeleka (Greek: Αθανασία Τσουμελέκα, [aθanaˈsia tsumeˈleka]; born 2 January 1982 in Preveza, Greece) is a Greek race walker, who won a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Personal information | |||||||||
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Born | (1982-01-02) 2 January 1982 (age 42) Preveza, Greece | ||||||||
Sport | |||||||||
Country | Greece | ||||||||
Sport | Athletics | ||||||||
Event | 20 km walk | ||||||||
Achievements and titles | |||||||||
Personal best | 1:29.12 | ||||||||
Medal record
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Until 2003 Tsoumeleka was a largely unknown athlete, and she only finished seventh at the World Championships that year.[citation needed] 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).[citation needed]
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 6 August tested positive for erythropoietin, when subjected to a new test for CERA.[1] Tsoumeleka expressed doubts about the validity of the procedure, and then announced her immediate retirement from the sport.[1] On 29 April 2009 it was announced that Tsoumeleka had tested positive for CERA in a test on a blood sample provided during the 2008 Olympics.[2] Her "B" sample also tested positive for CERA.[3] On 18 November 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.[4]