However, on the day prior to the opening ceremony, Thanou and her training partner Konstantinos Kenteris failed to attend a drugs test, and later the same night were hospitalised, claiming they had both been injured in a motorcycle accident.

In the ensuing doping scandal, Kenteris and Thanou announced their withdrawal from the Games on 18 August after a hearing before the Disciplinary Commission of the IOC, for what they described to be "in the interests of the country."

On her return to international competition at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham, England, she was booed by the crowds before finishing sixth in the final of 60 metres with 7.26.

Thanou claimed that she faced "intense pressure" to withdraw from the Beijing Olympics, four years after being involved in a major doping controversy at the Athens Games.

[citation needed] On 6 September 2011, the Guardian newspaper reported that Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou had been acquitted by a Greek appeals court of faking a motorcycle crash after missing a drugs test.