APOSTOLOS CHRISTOU

Apostolos Christou became the first Greek medallist in the Olympic swimming pool since 1896 when he won silver in the 200m backstroke at Paris 2024. When he touched the wall in a national record of 1:54.82, Apostolos handed Greece its first medal in 128 years.

The previous seven honours for Greece were all won at the 1896 Athens Olympic Games with Spyridon Gianniotis taking open water silver at Rio 2016.

Apostolos has enjoyed a medal-laden 2024 with 100m backstroke bronze at the World Championships in Doha getting the ball rolling in February. He followed that up with three visits to the podium at the European Championships in Belgrade where he completed the 50/100 backstroke double and led off the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay that won bronze. He moved on to Paris around five weeks later where the 100m backstroke was first up in which he finished fourth, locked out of the podium by 0.02.

Then came the 200 and an historic trip to the podium which he dedicated to his family. “It’s special for me,” he said. “It is my dream to achieve this for all those years I’ve been working.”

He added: “I’m really happy. I don’t believe what I’ve done because my goal here was the 100 backstroke, so I came and I medalled in the 200. I thought I had the opportunity to take the medal. I went really fast the first 100m, and then I tried to keep up. That’s why I made the podium.”