The sprinter's legal team, headed by University of Buckingham-based lawyer Gregory Ioannidis, have written to the Commission in which they make ten allegations against the IOC, including discrimination, abuse of power and a violation of human rights, reports HellenicAthletes.com.

The Ethics Commission was created by the IOC's Executive Board in 1999 in the wake of the Salt Lake City bid scandal with the aim of being the guardian of the ethical principles of the Olympic Movement.

It is headed by Youssoupha Ndiaye, Senegal's former Sports Minister and a judge in the country's Supreme Court, and also includes United Nations Secretary General Javier Perez De Cuellar and Britain's Sir Craig Reedie.

The IOC last week reallocated the medals stripped from Jones for doping but refused to upgrade Thanou from silver to gold because she missed several drug tests before the 2004 Athens Olympics, which led to her missing the Games and subsequently being banned for two years.

In August Thanou claimed that she had been offered a compromise deal by the IOC whereby she would be given the gold medal if she acknowledged her guilt and accept full responsibility for missing a series of out-of-competition drugs tests in the build-up to the Athens.

She refused the offer.

Thanou was also barred from competing in the Beijing Olympics last year after the IOC evoked rule 45.2 of the Olympic Charter, claiming she had brought the Movement into “disrepute” for her “unacceptable behaviour” at the 2004 Olympics and that she and training partner Kostas Kederis had faked a motorcycle accident on the eve of the Opening Ceremony to avoid being drug tested.

The matter now seems certain to end up in the courts.

Thanou has already threatened to take legal action against Jacques Rogge, the President of the IOC, and Lambis Nikolaou, a senior member of the IOC and former President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, and demand multi-million dollar damages.

Part of the action will include alleged threats against her by Olympic officials in 2004, which she claims could give rise to criminal liability against the IOC and some of its senior officials. 

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), meanwhile, has amended its results to list Thanou as winner of the 100 metres in Sydney.

They have moved Thanou from second to first in its official results and lists Marion Jones as "DQ," or disqualified.

In the new IAAF results, there is an asterisk next to Thanou's name.

A note at the bottom says: "Following a decision of the IOC, Thanou will not be awarded the gold medal but will retain her silver medal."

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