Six days before the opening of the Olympics, Greece’s female heavyweight judo champion was severely injured early on Saturday in a three-story fall from an Athens apartment block following a fight with her boyfriend.

Eleni Ioannou, 20, was in critical condition at the Erythros Stavros Hospital in central Athens yesterday with a broken skull and other bone fractures after falling from the balcony of her boyfriend’s apartment on 106 Kerassountos St, in Perissos.

The man was released after testifying to police, who are understood not to be treating the incident as a suicide attempt.

Ioannou, who took up judo four years ago, has won three Greek titles in the over-78-kilo weight group, and came third in the 2002 Balkan championships. Greece’s Olympic athletes are not due to take up residence in the Olympic Village until Thursday, the eve of the Games opening ceremony.

Ioannou is to be replaced on the Olympic squad by Eleni Patsiou, 33.