The banned Halkia, however, won a gold medal in Athens, so Greek Olympic officials counted her as one of the torchbearers for the Olympic torch relay. She received a gold medal in the women’s 400m hurdles in Athens. Halkia set an Olympic record of 52.77 seconds during the semifinals.

Halkia was suspended two years ago due to a positive test for an anabolic steroid, metribolone, at the Beijing Olympics. Metribolone is also known as methyltrienolone or R1881. It is derived from trenbolone and is a powerful anabolic steroid. Metribolone, however, has a high potential for producing toxic effects to the liver.

During the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing on August last year, Halkia was declared to have tested positive for metribolone. She denied using such substance and requested a B sample to be tested the next day. Her B sample also generated the comparable results. On December 12, 2008, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) finally proclaimed that she would be prohibited from entering in any competition for two years.

From Deadspin:

The Vancouver games are only starting the torch relay, and we’ve already got a doping controversy. Oh, Olympics, how we’ve missed you.