Olympic coach distributed drugs

Former Olympic weightlifter Christos Konstantinidis has accused the suspended Greece Coach Christos Iacovou of giving banned substances to athletes, according to a Court official.

Konstantinidis represented Greece at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and provided evidence to a judicial investigation set up to enquire into a doping scandal in which 11 out of the 14-member national weightlifting team tested positive for the anabolic steroid, methyltrienolone.

From Foxsports.com.au:

He told prosecutor Andreas Karaflos that Iacovou, who has been suspended by the Greek Weightlifting Federation pending the outcome of the case, had pressed him to take banned substances in 1997.

"The former athlete told the prosecutor that Iacovou had urged him to take banned substances and that when he refused he found himself off the national team," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Konstantinidis made identical claims in 1997 but was then forced to sign an apology for fear of losing his job with the police.

The court official said Konstantinidis told the prosecutor that despite signing the apology 11 years ago, he had never retracted his comments.

"He stood by what he had said in 1997 and he repeated those claims today again," the official said.

Iacovou would not have given steroids to his athletes, as per Nikos Kourtidis, one of the three weightlifters who didn't test positive.