Katerina Thanou will not compete in Beijing after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused the Greek sprinter entry to the athletics competition for bringing the Olympic Games into disrepute.

The IOC’s executive board today ruled her ineligible to compete after the “scandalous saga” that overshadowed the start of the previous Games in 2004. Thanou and compatriot Kostas Kenteris missed a drugs test of the eve of the Athens Games after claiming to have been involved in a motorcycle accident.

It was the third time both athletes had missed a test, resulting in an automatic two-year ban by the IAAF.

The decision to deny Thanou accreditation was taken on the recommendation of the IOC’s disciplinary commission. This allows temporary ineligibility as a sanction. But the IOC went a step further by invoking another rule in its Olympic Charter that gives it the power to refuse any athlete at its discretion.

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The IOC said the move to use this power signalled the strength of its feeling against Thanou’s behaviour that was of “very serious prejudice to the Olympic Movement” and raise “significant moral considerations”.

The decision may lead to a messy legal battle. Thanou, who qualified for the Beijing Games, had threatened to sue Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, if she was denied permission to participate.

She is also demanding that she be awarded Marion Jones’ gold medal after the American was stripped of her Olympic title for drug use. Thanou finished second behind her in Sydney 2000.