Leading into the Games, nothing but the hardest veins pocked with plasma juiced up and arteries raging on drugs performance enhancing. Day after approaching day, reports on the encroaching and artificially enhanced visitors found out and exposed. A bicyclist here, a weightlifter there, the notice was on and the Greeks were being put out to international drug shame.
Snapping grand, two Greek track stars threw in the fear of voices and mayhem of two wheels, to bring their nation's focus away from the infrastructure back onto the athletes. Crashed at night, days spent in a hospital, rumours turn golden fit.
Short burst entertainment, the tribulation shattered their chances as the big daddy IOC heard out Ekatarina Thanou and Konstantinos Kenteris, medallists from Sydney 2000, and their withdrawal from their expected events. Even their coach, Christos Tzekos, fell victim to their smashed up antics, choosing to hand in his accreditation.
With the Greek spectators holding back en masse from the stadiums—preferring to watch their sport lazily away from the crowds, foreigners and surly general ticket admission—Thanou and Kenteris will now avail themselves the full experience of watching others win on their home soil.
Written on Wednesday, 18 August 2004