Greek Swimmers Win Big at World Para Swimming Championships

Greek swimmers Dimosthenis Michalentzakis, Alexandra Stamatopoulou, and Dimitris Karypidis won big at the 2022 World Para Swimming Championships in Madeira, Portugal on Wednesday.

In total, Greek swimmers have taken home four medals since the beginning of the Championship, three of which are gold.

Of the three athletes, two took home gold medals in their respective categories: Stamatopoulou in the women’s 50-meter backstroke and Michalentzakis in the men’s 100-meter freestyle. Karypidis won the silver medal in the 200 meter men’s freestyle.

This is not Stamatopoulou’s first big win at an international competition. The swimmer took home the bronze medal at the Tokyo Paralympics in the women’s 50m backstroke swimming S4 event.

Stamatopoulou, who has a rare neurological disorder called Stiff Person Syndrome, finished the Paralympic race with a time of 49.63, earning her the bronze medal.

Michalentzakis, who was born with paralysis in his right arm, also had a strong showing at the Tokyo Paralympics, as he took home the bronze medal for Greece in swimming.

The Greek swimmer also won gold in the 100m butterfly S9 at 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. He also won three gold medals at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London.

Greek swimmers win big at Championships

Greek paralympic swimmer Antonios Tsapatakis won the gold medal on the opening day of the 2022 World Para Swimming Championships in Madeira, Portugal on Sunday.

Tsapatakis won the 100-meter breaststroke race in 1:36.27 ahead of two Colombian athletes who finished second and third.

The Tokyo bronze medalist from Crete played water polo before he was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident in 2006.

Greek-American swimmer Anastasia Pagonis, took home a gold medal Wednesday in her debut at the 2022 World Para Swimming Championships in Madeira, Portugal.

Pagonis, who lost her eyesight at fourteen, captured the gold for Team USA in the women’s 200-meter medley with a time of 2:49.73. The victory came a year after the now eighteen-year-old won the first gold for the US in the Tokyo Paralympic Games last August.

“I feel awesome, I had a really fun race…competing after Tokyo,” she said Wednesday. Pagonis still has two more competitions at Madeira 2022, including the 400-meter freestyle, her winning Paralympic event in Japan.