Athanasia Tsoumeleka

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.

Athanasia Tsoumeleka

Personal information
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 Olympic Games 2004 Athens 20 km race walking

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]