Ilias Chatzipavlis
Silver medal, September 8, 1972, Ilias Hatzipavlis Cat. Finn Munich 1972
The sailing regattas were held in Kiel and 35 boats participated in the Finn category, among them Ilias Chatzipavlis, who was considered by the experts of the sport as an outsider to win a medal. Despite the difficulties of the regatta, the Greek champion had an excellent start in his races and was in first place after the fourth race. In the next race, he was in fourth place, but finished the race out of time and now had to work hard to hope for an award. Then everything went according to plan, especially in the 6th race, and the silver medal was a great success, it was the second in the history of the sport.
The ranking Maury (France) 58.0 points Chatzipavlis (Greece) 71.0 Potapov (USA) 74.7 Bertrand (Australia) 76.7 Lundqvist (Sweden) 81.0 Weber (Finland) 85.7 Schröder (GDR) 91.0 Finaczy (Hungary)94.0
They said..
“1972 was one of the best years of my career, I had great performances in the World and European Championships. I can not say I was confident of winning a medal, but I knew I was well prepared and was confident about my performance. The preparation program I had started in 1965 came to an end that year. It was a sensational race, what do I remember first? The joy of my success or the events related to the terrorist attack in the Olympic village. I remember that the French gold medalist Maury took the medal from his chest on the podium, gave it to me and said: “You are the winner”. When I returned to Athens, I was picked up in a Rolls Royce and driven to Pasalimani, where thousands of sports fans had gathered”.
September 8, 1972
