Athanasia Tsoumeleka
Gold medal, August 23, 2004, Athanasia Tsoumeleka, 20km. race walk. Athens 2004
At the age of 22, Athanasia Tsoumeleka, a native of Preveza, achieved a victory – a feat that can only be compared to the triumph of Spyros Louis. The Greek champion entered the 20,000m walk race with the goal of winning an award, and from the beginning she kept herself in the leading group. From km 6 she was constantly in the top ten and at km 10 was 6th with a time of 45.16. At km 14 fatigue made itself felt, but the encouragement of the Greek fans on the roads gave her courage and confidence. So at kilometre 16 she climbed to third place, and at kilometre 18 she overtook the experienced Russian Ivanova with a tremendous effort and took the lead. With amazing endurance in the final, she withstood the attacks and won an unexpected medal of high value with a time of 1 hour 29.12, a new individual record. Ivanova was second with 1:29.16 and Saville (Australia) third with 1:29.25.
The final ranking: Tsoumeleka (Greece) 1 hour 29.12 Ivanova (Russia) 1.29.16 Saville (Australia) 1.29.25 Turova (Belarus) 1.29.39 Seeger (Germany) 1.29.52 Rigaudo (Italy) 1.29.57 Vasco (Spain) 1.30 .06 Wang (China) 1.30.16
They said..
“I felt really good until km 14, but then I started to get tired. But I had the fans on my side and so I recovered after that. Originally I had in mind to conquer a place among the first eight. In the last meters I tried very hard, people pushed me to the finish. Then I also believed in the victory. Before the race I was nervous and scared, but when the starting gun went off I was very calm. I believe that God gave me this serenity. I dedicate the medal to my family, whom I miss very much.”
August 23, 2004
