Greece Shines at Rio Olympics Despite Obstacles

Amid the economic crisis and lacking government support, Greece participated in the Rio 2016 Olympics with the smallest delegation in the last two decades and managed through its athletes to shine, securing six medals, 14 participations in Olympic finals, and 12 athletes among the world’s top eight.

The Rio Games mark Greece’s fifth best performance since the first modern Olympics held in Athens in 1896, having thus far collected a total of 122 medals.

The Greek Travel Pages (GTP) congratulates this year’s Olympic medal bearers:

• Anna Korakaki, gold in women’s 25m pistol; bronze in 10m air pistol. Korakaki is also the first woman athlete to bring home two medals from the same Games, achieved 104 years ago by Konstantinos Tsiklitiras in standing long jump and standing high jump.

• Katerina Stefanidi, gold in women’s pole vault

• Lefteris Petrounias, gold in men’s rings

• Spyros Gianniotis, silver men’s 10km marathon swim, the first medal in swimming in Greek history. Gianniotis was the oldest competitor of the event at the Rio Olympics at 36.

• Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis, bronze in men’s 470 (dinghy)