US sprinter Torri Edwards lost her appeal to overturn a two-year suspension for taking a banned stimulant Tuesday, while a drugs shadow still hangs over the host nation, with sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou leaving an Athens hospital four days after a motorcycle crash that followed a missed test.
Edwards had her two-year drug suspension for taking the banned stimulant nikethamide upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The ruling is final.
In the competition arena, Michael Phelps won his second individual gold medal in the 200m butterfly and helped the US win a thrilling 4x200m relay over Australia. Ukraine's Yana Klochkova, meanwhile won back-to-back 200m individual medley golds.
Romania took advantage of America's minor mistakes to defend its women's gymnastics team gold medal, Mariel Zagunis won America's first fencing gold in 100 years in the women's saber and top-seeded Roger Federer lost in the second round of the men's tennis.
China didn't win Tuesday, but still leads the medals table after 50 events with 10 golds, six silver and two bronze. The US is second, followed by Japan and Australia -- all with six golds.
Edwards had been considered a medal contender in the 100m and 200m. She inherited the world championship in the 100m when Kelli White forfeited that crown because of drug use.
The future of Kenteris, the defending 200m champion and Thanou, who won 100m silver in Sydney, is still uncertain. The pair -- both suspended by the Greek Olympic Commitee -- were scheduled to appear before an International Olympic Committee panel Wednesday and faces suspension from the games.
"I am suffering a great injustice and I want to say I never used banned substances," said Kenteris, whose coach Christos Tsekos is also suspended.
In the pool, Phelps held off Takashi Yamamoto to win the 200M butterfly in 1 minute, 54.01 seconds. The hard-charging Japanese swimmer took silver (1:54.56), while Britain's Stephen Parry won bronze (1:55.22).
A short time later, Phelps helped win the men's 4x200m freestyle relay with a US-record time of 7:07.33, with Klete Keller holding off fast-finishing Australian Ian Thorpe. Italy won bronze.
Phelps' quest to better Mark Spitz's 1972 haul of seven gold medals ended Monday when he finished third in the 200m butterfly to Thorpe. Phelps, 19, also won gold in the 400 IM and bronze in the men's 4x100m relay.
Romanian Camelia Alina Potec won the women's 200m freestyle in 1:58.03, ahead of Italy's Federica Pellegrini and Frenchwoman Solenne Figues de Saint Marie. Klochkova, who also won the 400 IM on Saturday, edged out American Amanda Beard and Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry.
In gymnastics, the world champion US team had errors on every event, costing them valuable fractions of points. They finished with 113.584, behind the emotional Romanians. Russia won the bronze.
"I was certain this competition was going to be very tough, but we didn't let the chance pass us by," said Romanian Oana Ban. "This was our team goal from the very beginning."
Several big names lost in the tennis -- Federer was ousted by low-ranked Czech Tomas Berdych, 6-4, 5-7, 5-7, Juan Carlos Ferrero wasted a match point to let America's Mardy Fish win 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4, and Russia's Marat Safin lost to Feliciano Lopez of Spain 7-6 (4), 6-3. Second-seeded Andy Roddick recovered to beat Germany's Tommy Haas 4-6, 6-3, 9-7.
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