Christos Volikakis says he doesn’t even know the substance he found positive

Announcement issued by his lawyer, on finding himself positive in—according to the International Cycling Association (UCI)—a sample he had given during the Rio Olympics, in 2016. Specifically, the World Cycling Federation announced that in a re-check of a sample given by Christos Volikakis at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio – and more specifically on 16 August – a Greek athlete was found positive in a banned substance. Now, Anastasios Dougas’ lawyer says that Christos Volikakis says that the athlete has never used this substance and that he does not even know it. It also states that they are asking questions that the sample was re-checked 8 years later, while then it had been found negative. He makes it clear that Christos Volikakis will move legal for his vindication. In detail the announcement “My principal participated in the Olympics in Rio, Brazil in the year 2016, in the sport of cycling-sprint, in which he ranked 12th in a row. Following the end of the race and specifically on 16.8.2016, the Organizing Committee of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games invited him to provide a sample (ura) in a sample check to be checked by the Commission. Indeed, at that date it provided the relevant material for the sample, from which two sample codes emerged and the result of the check was negative. On 01.03.2024 my principal received, by extension, the letter from the Greek Olympic Committee, on behalf of the International Olympic Committee, which informed him that in re-checking the first sample which at the time(2016) had provided a banned substance to his organization! The substance mentioned in the letter is a substance which my principal does not know and which he has never used! My commanding officer from the beginning of his course and to this day, as a world-wide athlete, embracing the values of sport, never received any substance that would enhance his performance, precisely because each performance is a huge personal physical and spiritual effort and effort. It is also striking that the sample was re-checked after nearly 8 years of sampling, especially considering that the position taken at the time was not even close to the medal positions! In fact, on the day of sampling, the result was negative. In any case my commanding officer, a world-famous cyclist, declares complete ignorance regarding both the type of substance that appears to have been detected in the control and the way it may have been found there, given the fact that he has never received such a substance in any way, let alone during the 2016 Olympic Games. It has not already requested the opening and analysis of the other sample, taken in accordance with the regulations, on the same day. Mr. Volikakis has spent infinite checks on his cycling career in all parts of the world as well as sudden checks and after games he was checked every day for a continuous 4 days. It has, under the law, all these years electronic – biological passport and they take a sample of urine and blood. During this time he has never given the slightest cause. So after all these years, in the year 2024, they were found to tell him that he had a banned substance in his system! Also, we’ve requested that the second sample be opened. Mr. Volikakis will move legal for his vindication, because it is a wonder that after eight years all this happens. Finally, I declare as his advocate that we will fight to the end for the vindication of Mr Volikakis and for the restoration of the injustice that exists. At your disposal.” The lawyer Anastasios Dugas