Greek swimmers and members of the Olympiakos Piraeus Youth Academy, have written a letter to Santa Claus asking for coal to heat their pool due to lack of funding.
“We collected wishes from the families of the swimming division of the club for the festive season and decided to put them into a letter for Santa Claus… One of those wishes was to give courage and strength to our parents to bring us to training and lots of coal to all of the teams so that all of the closed swimming pools can reopen”, the swimming team manager Spiros Bitsakis told the club’s website.
The Zappeion Swimming Pool in Athens, a major training center for Greece’s elite swimmers and water polo players, is closing for the winter months because there are no funds to pay for heating oil.
Last month, the Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) issued a plea to the state to reconsider drastic spending cuts for sports and warned that athletics federations across Greece would shut down in January if their cries fell on deaf ears.
For the first time in 16 years, Greece did not take part in last month’s European short-course swimming championships in France, because of financial problems.
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