(dpa) - Olympic 400-metres hurdles champion Fani Halkia of Greece has tested positive for steroids just hours before she was due to compete at the Beijing Games on Sunday.
Greek Olympic officials said that Halkia was on her way back to Greece after disputing that she had doped deliberately. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also confirmed the case.
Halkia was caught at an out-of-competition test on August 10 at the Greek team's Olympic training camp in Fukuoka, Japan. She was caught using the same substance, methyltrienolone, as a swimmer, a sprinter and 11 weightlifters from the Greek team in recent weeks.
But Halkia protested her innocence at an early-morning news conference.
"I am shocked. I don't know what happened. I am always cautious with what I take in," she said.
The IOC disciplinary committee was due to meet to discuss sanctions. If the B-sample confirms the original finding Halkia will be formally kicked out of the Games and under new rules will be banned from the London Games 2012.
Halkia also faces a two-year ban from the ruling athletics body IAAF.
Greek sport has been tainted by doping at the Olympics, with sprinters Katerina Thanou and Kostas Kenteris causing a major scandal at the Athens 2004 Games when they fled drug testers and then withdrew from the Games after a staged motorcycle accident before the IOC could kick them out.
The IOC reopened the case in Beijing and declared Thanou ineligible because she had grossly violated Olympic values.
The IOC is conducting some 4,500 doping tests at the Beijing Games. Halkia is the fourth athlete caught since the testing started on July 27