Who would have believed it... Apostolos Christou has been working hard for more than ten years to achieve a great success in the 100m backstroke and saw it slip away for two hundredths of a second at the Paris Olympics. He considered retiring from the 200m backstroke, but decided not to give up. He came down and achieved the impossible. He won the silver medal, the first medal for Greek swimming in the pool in the history of the Games, and wrote his name in gold letters in the history of Greek sport.
Christou made a great race, taking a big lead from the beginning. He turned in the first 100 in 55.14, faster even than Aaron Piersol's pass on the unassailable world record he set in 2009. It was obvious that he could not go on like that and slowly Hungarian Hubert Kosh, who was the favourite for the final anyway, narrowed the gap and overtook him, winning the gold medal in 1:54.26. The Greek champion gave the last ounce of his strength, finishing in 1:54.82, smashing the national record of Apostolos Siskos (1:55.42 from 19/6 in Belgrade) and keeping the second place, ahead of Swiss Roman Mitiukov who took the third place with 1:54.85. Greece now has a medal in swimming!
The results of the historic for our country final in the men's 200m backstroke:
1. Hubert Kos (Hungary) 1:54.26 2. Apostolos Christou (GREECE) 1:54.82 3. Roman Mityukov (Switzerland) 1:54.85 4. Meouin Tomac (France) 1:55.38 5. Keaton Jones (USA) 1:55.39 6. Hugo Gonzalez (Spain) 1:55.47 7. Peter Kege (South Africa) 1:55.60 (African record) 8. Lucas Mertens (Germany) 1:55.97
What time does not bring, the moment brings
How far can the -great but somewhat... unlovely- fourth place be from second place? How far can the disappointment at the marginal loss of an Olympic medal be from the elation of winning it? If measured in time, the answer varies. For most, the distance tends to infinity; for one person it may be a full four years away, for another only three days.
But if we measure the distance in terms of mental gifts, the answer is simple: perseverance, fighting spirit, champion's metal, never give up mentality.
On August 10, 2012, when Spyros Gianniotis finished fourth in the 10km open water swimming race in London, he felt that his dream of an Olympic medal had been extinguished. He was already 32 years old, he would not be able to make it to the next event and appear competitive again. He was angry, upset, cried, apologized “to those I let down.”.
On July 29, 2024, when Apostolos Christou finished the final of the 100m backstroke at the Paris Olympics, he saw his dream shattered for just two hundredths of a second, which was all that separated him from the podium. He is approaching his 28th birthday and the 2028 Games in Los Angeles seem a long way off. “Who lives, who dies by then,” he said. He was sad, angry, frustrated. “I'll probably leave the 200.”.
On August 16, 2016, the 36-year-old Gianniotis was fighting the waves of Copacabana, against a bunch of younger (or much younger) opponents. He reached the finish line in second place, climbed the Olympic podium and cried again, for joy this time. He became the idol of an entire country that admired his unstoppable passion and perseverance. Only he and his people know how he and his family truly spent those four excruciating - but ultimately so enjoyable - years.
Christou did not have to wait that long. On August 1, 2024, just three days after finishing fourth in the 100m, he won the silver medal in the 200m backstroke, the first for Greece in the history of the Olympic Games in indoor swimming. She cheered, she was amazed, she looked at the board over and over again to make sure. And when she stepped onto the podium, she gasped. How he went from “I'm not coming down” to a medal, only he and Panagiotis Velentzas (his coach) can answer.
This is how history is written. Time is moments and, sometimes, “some things come when you least expect it”, as Christou told APE-MPA. Because this kid from the western suburbs of Athens, born on November 1, 1996, has been fighting for the ultimate distinction in the 100m backstroke for more than a decade. Since 2013, when he became world junior champion in Dubai, he carried the label of the successor of the most successful Greek swimmer in the pool until then, the world and European champion Arigoriadis.
Working since the end of 2015 with Panagiotis Velentzas, who helped him a lot in his development (both in terms of competition and in terms of mentality and athletic character), Christou won titles and medals in European Championships, both in the 100m and 50m, climbed to third place in the world in the 100m last February in Doha, celebrated two golds in June at the European Games in Belgrade, qualified for the first time in his career for an Olympic final, but the medal eluded him. “Fourth place means nothing to me”.
All these years, the 200 backstroke was very low on Christos' priorities. He participated in two European Championships finals (and once more in the 25-meter pool), where he was consistently fifth, took a bronze medal at the 2018 Mediterranean Games, competed at the Rio Olympics - without making it past the qualifying rounds - but usually, he either didn't enter the event at all in major events or withdrew. The last time he tried it was at the 2021 Europeans in Budapest, but he missed the semifinals. Going into Paris, he wasn't even the best of the two Greeks in the event, with 19-year-old Apostolos Siskos having a better performance (1:55.42) by almost a second.
To be sure, here are the previous appearances of Apostolos Christou in the 200m backstroke in major international competitions (in 50m pool):
YEAR EVENT CITY LOCATION 2016 European London 5th 2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro 24th 2018 European Glasgow 5th 2019 World Cup Guangzhou 24th 2021 Europe Budapest 23rd
To achieve the seemingly impossible, he had to go from 1:56.34 (his personal best before Paris) to 1:54.82 in the final, a second and a half. And that was the least of it. He needed first and foremost to manage his emotions, to temper his frustration, to find motivation, to free himself and to swim more freely. He had the space of an empty day to do it, and he succeeded because he is an athlete with tremendous focus and concentration, a consummate professional in a field that continues to be considered - and treated as - amateur. To put it bluntly, no amateur athlete, no... hobbyist can make it to the podium at the Olympics, much less in one of the most competitive sports there is.
“I know the feeling and I know that no one can comfort you. But know this, we are all with you! You may have missed the medal by 2 centimeters, but you are made of metal,” Spyros Gianniotis wrote to him after the 100m final. “You showed your metal!” he rejoined after the 200m, as if reliving his own run. Four years or three days, time is relative, as Albert Einstein taught. And in the final analysis, it doesn't matter as much as the starting point and destination. And the journey, of course!
APE-MPA presents the biography of the “silver” Olympic swimmer, Apostolos Christou:
Date. Birth 1/11/1996
Association Olympiacos SFP
Participation in O.A. 2016, 2021, 2024
Participations in P.P. 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024
Participations in FPs 2016, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2024
Distinctions 2nd 200m backstroke Olympic Games 2024
4th 100m backstroke Olympic Games 2024
3rd 100m backstroke Worlds 2024
5th 50m backstroke Worlds 2022
5th 100m backstroke World 2022
5th 4x100m. mixed team mixed World Championships 2024
6th 50m backstroke World 2023
6th 4x100m freestyle World 2024
8th 50m backstroke World 2019
1st 50m backstroke European 2022
1st 50m backstroke European 2024
1st 100m backstroke European 2024
2nd 100m backstroke European 2022
3rd 100m backstroke European 2016
3rd 100m backstroke European 2018
3rd 100m backstroke European 2021
3rd 4x100m freestyle European 2024
4th 50m backstroke European 2021
4th 4x100m freestyle European 2016
4th 4x100m mixed team European 2016
5th 200m backstroke European 2016
5th 200m backstroke European 2018
5th 4x100m freestyle European 2018
5th 4x100m freestyle European 2021
7th 50m backstroke European 2018
7th 4x100m mixed team European 2022
5th 100m backstroke World 2022 (25m)
6th 50m backstroke World 2022 (25m)
7th 100m backstroke World 2021 (25m)
7th 4x50m. mixed team World Championships 2021 (25m.)
8th 50m backstroke World Championships 2021 (25m)
3rd 100m backstroke European 2021 (25m)
3rd 4x50m. freestyle European 2023 (25m.)
5th 200m backstroke European 2019 (25m)
5th 50m backstroke European 2021 (25m)
7th 100m backstroke European 2019 (25m)
7th 100m freestyle European 2021 (25m)
7th 100m backstroke European 2023 (25m)
8th 100m backstroke European 2017 (25m)
8th 50m backstroke European 2019 (25m)
8th 50m backstroke European 2023 (25m)
2nd 50m backstroke Youth Olympics 2014
1st 100m backstroke World Championships 2013
1st 100m backstroke European Junior Nationals 2014
2nd 50m backstroke European Championship 2014
2nd 200m backstroke European Championship 2014
3rd 50m backstroke European Championship 2013YANNIS DIMITROGLOU
