(ATR) Disgraced Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou is to go ahead with a multi-million dollar legal action against the IOC after being banned from competing at the Beijing Olympics.
Lawsuits will be filed in three separate jurisdictions, reported HellenicAthletes.com. IOC President Jacques Rogge and Greek IOC member Lambis Nikolau are specifically named in the legal action, according to the report.
The IOC could not be reached for comment about Thanou's plans to sue them.
The IOC banned Thanou from participating in Beijing at an executive board meeting Aug. 10, even though she had served a two-year ban for missing three drug tests.
The IOC said she brought the Olympic Movement into "disrepute."
The EB's judgment was based on the report of a disciplinary commission, composed of Thomas Bach, Denis Oswald and Sergey Bubka. That report slammed Thanou for "unacceptable behavior" at the 2004 Olympics where she is alleged to have faked a motorcycle accident to avoid drug testing along with her teammate Costas Kenteris.
The IOC Charter states that the organization may "at its discretion, at any time, refuse any entry, without indication of grounds" and that "nobody is entitled to any right to any kind to participate in the Olympic Games."
The EB had ruled that application of the ruling was "fully justified" in the case of Thanou.
The 33-year-old had always maintained that the International Association of Athletics Federations and the Court of Arbitration for Sport had dealt with her 2004 case in a confidential agreement between the parties signed in 2006.
Prior to the Athens Olympics, Thanou had missed doping tests on three occasions leading the IAAF to hand her a two-year suspension. That ban expired in December 2006.
Thanou's plans to proceed with a lawsuit against the IOC do not augur well for her silver medal being upgraded to gold from the 100-meter at the Sydney Olympics after it was returned by disgraced U.S. sprinter Marion Jones.
The IOC has yet to rule on the redistribution of the medals from that tainted race.
With reporting from Mark Bisson.
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