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Spiros Louis’ statue in Berwick

A statue of Spiros Louis who took part in the first modern Olympic Games of 1986 in Athens, will be created in Berwick. This initiative belongs to the Greek Organization for the support of the Olympic Spirit and Idea, whose head is Mr. Aristides Panagakis. Berwick is the place where Edwin H. Flack, the great Australian runner and double Olympic champion in the first modern Olympic games of 1986 in Athens, lived.  This athlete was born in England in 1873, he moved with his family in Australia at the age of four (in 1878) and after eighteen years, in 1896, he made a great success for the Australian, winning two gold medals in Athens. He also participated in the Marathon, but he was defeated by Spiros Louis, the Greek legendary runner who made his name a synonym of the modern Olympic Games.

He worked as an accountant in Melbourn and he lived in Berwick, where he died at the age of 61, in 1935. He was never married. In 1966, 100 years after the revival of the modern Olympics, the small town of Berwick made a small copper statue in order to remind to the new generations the great athlete that honored Australia.

In the town hall of Berwick, there is also a  space dedicated to this great athlete: a corner full of his photos and a small copper.

Now, under the initiative of the organization next to the statue of the Australian champion, another statue will be created, this of Spiros Louis.

An announcement refers: “the Organization of supporting the Olympiads and the Olympic Idea in general, wants to inform that after many meetings, there is the permission for the construction of a metal statue of Spiros Louis. The statue will be like this of the Australian athlete and it will be created by the same sculptor. It will also be settled in the same place of the central square of Berwick, next to to the statue of Flack”.

A statue of Spiros Louis already exists in Sidney.

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