updated 4:24 a.m. ET Aug. 21, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - Everything is in readiness in Greece for national hero Pyrros Dimas’ attempt at a fourth consecutive Olympic weightlifting gold medal.

Everything except Dimas himself.

Greek sports fans may not know until the start of Saturday’s 187 pounds (85kg) competition if Dimas can bounce back from a nearly four-year layoff, three knee operations and a wrist injury suffered only this week.

Some critics have compared the 32-year-old Dimas to Turkey’s Naim Suleymanoglu, who appeared to have hung on for one Olympics too many in Sydney. Often called the best weightlifter ever, Suleymanoglu couldn’t complete a single lift in those games.

Dimas vowed to not repeat Suleymanoglu’s mistake of remaining idle for year after year until the Olympics approached. Yet he did exactly that, not returning until he finished fifth in the European championships this spring with a total lift 38½ pounds lighter than in Atlanta in 1996.

“I use an alternative training regimen,” Dimas said last week. “Until now I have trained less than the other athletes, but in the final week I will train to the limit. My target is a medal.”

Some coaches don’t like older athletes taking such an approach, and Dimas sought hospital treatment Monday for a hyperextended right wrist that occurred during a strenuous training session. Even if he competes, he will have missed valuable training time during what he said was his most important week of practice.

A Dimas disappointment would be a further letdown to Greece, which learned Friday that bronze medalist Leonidas Sampanis tested positive for drugs in an initial sample. A backup sample is being tested to determine whether the initial findings are accurate.

Sampanis gained a bronze medal at 137 pounds (62kg) this week after taking silver at the previous two Olympics.

Also Saturday, Cheryl Haworth, from Savannah, Ga., tries to follow up on the bronze she took in Sydney at age 17 at super heavyweight. But the field is deeper and more competitive than in 2000, and she is coming off a surgically rebuilt elbow that was injured only 13 months ago.

“There are six (women’s) super heavyweights that can win,” U.S. coach Michael Cohen said. “Cheryl is stronger than ever; her strength is not in question, it’s overcoming the mental problem of being hurt so bad and trying to recover so fast.”

On Friday, Thailand — until now, a country best known athletically for its boxers — continued its rise as a worldwide weightlifting power by getting its second gold medal in Athens.

Pawina Thongsuk, 11 pounds lighter than most of the other competitors, shrugged off two world record-setting lifts by 19-year-old Russian Natalia Zabolotnaia to win the gold in 165-pound (75kg) weightlifting Friday.

The two tied with world-record total weights of 601 pounds (272.5kg), but all ties are broken on body weight and this wasn’t close. Thongsuk could have dropped less than a pound and competed Thursday at 152 pounds (69kg), while Zabolotnaia weighed slightly less than the 163-pound weight limit.

“I was at 69 but I moved up to 75 because I hoped to have a chance to get the gold,” Thongsuk said. “It was the correct decision by my coach and team manager.”

Thongsuk had never lifted above the 152-pound class, but Thai coaches didn’t want her to have to go against Olympic 152-pound champion Liu Chunhong for a gold. Liu’s total of 606 pounds (275kg) was 5½ pounds more than Thongsuk lifted in the higher weight class, and Liu won without even taking her final lift.

“I was not afraid of Liu,” Thongsuk said. “But I had a chance to get the gold medal at 75.”

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