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Greek Olympic Committee chairman Spiros Kapralos had give explanations to his colleagues from the International Olympic Committee of why Fani Halkiya was allowed to carry the Olympic torch for the winter games in Vancouver. The athlete is a 2004 Athens Olympic champion in 400 meters hurdles but she was accused for doping use. The fact that she was included in the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games torch carriers’ list called for discontent in IOC, in the media and in the Greek association of Olympic champions. “I am very angry with what happened. It should not have happened,” said Spiros Kapralos for the Canadian newspaper Vancouver Sun.

The Greek Olympic Committee will meet tomorrow, November 3 and it is possible for some people to resign and the most mentioned name for this is Spiros Zanias – chairman of the Olympic Torch Carriers Commission. He took the responsibility of including Halkiya as a torch carrier and explained that fact as “human error”. “The people, who worked on the Olympic torch road from Athens to Vancouver 2010 worked for many hours, in order for the ceremony to be faultless and this must remain in history. I can explain Fani Halkiya’s role as a mistake from the strain, which continued for weeks. The responsibility is entirely mine and not of the Greek Olympic Committee,” said Spiros Zanias.

The Greek Association of Olympic Champions also expressed their discontent from including the athlete in the symbolic ceremony: “This is an insult to all Greek sportsmen, because this way we all become one – the ones who use doping and ones who compete fair. There is no punishment for those who break the rules.”  Fani Hakliya has still not publicly explained why she accepted to carry the Olympic torch, when her doping case is still not resolved.