Sport in Greece - Sailing & Rowing

Sailing & Rowing

Greece has three bordering seas, i can edit this..... the Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea and Mediterranean Sea, so it not surprising that sailing is a popular sport. Greek athletes have won 7 medals in sailing and 2 in Rowing at the Olympic games and also numerous gold medals in the world and European championships. Some of the most notable Greek athletes in the sports of sailing and rowing include world and olympic champions such as:

• Nikolaos Kaklamanakis, a Greek Gold-medal winner in windsurfing, who lit the Olympic torch in the opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

• Anastasios Bountouris, a Greek sailor who competed at six Olympics between 1976 and 1996. He is the first Greek to compete at six Olympic Games, an achievement so far matched only by shooter Agathi Kassoumi. He won a bronze medal in the 1980 Olympics in the Three-Person Keelboat with Anastasios Gavrilis and Aristidis Rapanakis.

• Sofia Bekatorou, who has participated in over 470 main class events including 2004 Summer Olympics sailing competition, where she won gold medal in the women's double-handed dinghy event in the 470 with her pair Emilia Tsoulfa. She has also won 4 world championships.

• Georgios Zaimis, a Greek sailor and Olympic Champion, who together with Constantine II of Greece and Odysseus Eskidioglou competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and won a gold medal in the Dragon class with the boat Nirefs .

• Vasileios Polymeros, a Greek rower who won the bronze medal in men's lightweight double sculls with Nikolaos Skiathitis at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and the silver in men's lightweight double sculls with Dimitrios Mougios at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He has also won one gold and 3 silver medals in the world championships.

• Dimitrios Mougios is a Greek rower, who won the silver medal in men's lightweight double sculls with Vasileios Polymeros at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, two-times European champion and a silver world champion.

In the European Rowing Championships, Greece has won more gold medals all-time than any other nation, and is tied with Germany for the second-most medals of all time (behind Italy). In fact, Greece has finished first in the medal count 50% of the times it has been held, and has been in the top 4 of the medal count every single time!